


The Beginning of Days: Kreeli Comet

by MBIII



Series: Days Past [3]
Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Gen, Gladiators, Humor, Science Fiction, Space Stations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-31 04:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17842475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MBIII/pseuds/MBIII
Summary: The first semester of Nova Academy is almost over and the vacation period is fast approaching. Kaden's intends to use this break from classes and homework to focus on designing new weapons for Mercatus and himself, while Alister plans to go help out at his family's mining company on Kreeli Comet.However, when a special job request for both of them comes through the academy's official contract system, at least one of their plans will have to be put on hold... or will they?





	1. The Storm Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added another chapter to the previous part: 'Days Way Past', because I realized I'd misassigned them when dividing them into parts. If you've already read Part 2 of the Days Past Series before this adjustment, please make sure you've read that chapter first.

Nova Academy's school year was split into thirds. Two of those thirds were considered the standard semesters, filled with normal school activities and classes. The remaining third part was then divided in half and separated so as to occur in between each of the two main semesters.

These two intermediate periods that were not designated for school work were commonly known as the 'vacation' periods as there were no mandatory school requirements during this time. 

Contrary to its name, however, it was expected of most students that they would spend this time trying to improve themselves rather than relax. A hard-working student could turn a single vacation period into the equivalent of a whole semester's worth of advancement if they tried hard enough.

The first vacation period of the year was quickly approaching for Nova, something that Kaden had not forgotten about as he sat at his workbench connecting molecule-thin circuits on one of the several devices in front of him. 

This task marked the last of the modifications that needed to be made before he could finally do a full test of the equipment's functions.

Right on time, a soft proximity alarm chimed from the direction of the lab’s entrance, an indication that the workshop's security system was scanning a visitor. 

This was then followed by the sound of a robotic voice, “Permission granted… Alister Azimuth… to laboratory designation: ‘7”

Kaden had asked his friend for his help in testing the new weapon he was working on, as it would need someone with considerable skill to operate. This would also allow the tan Lombax to focus completely on monitoring the device's stress levels and energy readings during the experiment.

Once he’d crossed the threshold, Alister wasted no time approaching Kaden, "Nearly done?" he asked with a poorly hidden excitement in his tone.

For Alister, one of the best things about having a friend like Kaden was getting a VIP pass to all of the crazy inventions he would come up with. And, after seeing his friend so determined to design something, he was looking forward to seeing this latest one very much.

"Almost," Kaden answered without looking up from his work.

Kaden was wearing very large goggles, displayed on which was a real-time, nanoscopic video of the circuitry he was working on.

Although it appeared that he was directly manipulating the molecules themselves with the large sticks in his hands, he wasn't. The tools he held were actually just controls. Nanites, similar to the ones used in nanotech, were instead mimicking his tools' movements after scaling them down to the proper ratio size, which allowed him to freely complete the necessary high precision work that all new, modern technology needed.

Alister watched his friend work for a few seconds and wondered how long he'd actually take. 'Almost' was not a very specific time when spoken by Kaden, so the answer could really be anything.

"You really think you can stop Kor with this?" Alister eventually asked impatiently.

"I won't know until we test it, but I hope so," Kaden answered. "I've been looking forward to seeing this one's test run since I put those holes in the ceiling during the concept phase."

Alister looked up to see dozens of tiny pockmarks in the ceiling and nodded his approval.

As Alister continued to wait, the restless white Lombax began to explore the large room. Kaden's workshop was filled with all kinds of electronics, crafting equipment, and other inventions, a few of which he even recognized as ones he had already helped test.

"Are all these things going to be sold by Mercatus?" Alister asked.

"Any of them he wants to, yeah," Kaden answered, still without looking up from his work. "He has some good connections with a group of Grummels. He wants them to market the devices outside of Fastoon. He says the right device at the right time could bring in a fortune and that his contacts are apparently really excited about my latest cryo-weapon."

"Oh yeah?” asked Alister curiously as he wandered to the back of the workshop. “What's it look like?"

"They're blue orbs that come out of a special gauntlet," Kaden called back distractedly. "The gauntlet generates them from a condensed state because they don't transport very well on their own."

Alister stopped walking and turned back to Kaden, "Wait a second. Isn't it illegal to sell Lombax technology to outsiders?" he asked suspiciously.

Kaden still didn't look up from his work, "There's an exception to every rule," he countered. "This weapon's design doesn't use any of the advanced manufacturing techniques or materials that are known only to Lombaxes."

Alister shrugged in acceptance of the answer, not that he knew enough to argue, "What does it do?" he pressed, while looking around for the object in question.

"The orbs are filled with Cryogel," Kaden explained. "You throw them from the gauntlet and when they explode the gel coats nearby enemies, freezing them solid."

"Oh! So they're like some kind of ice-grenade?" said Alister, suddenly spotting the blue orbs in the corner of the room, his love of grenades drawing him in.

"No," said Kaden, still not looking up from his work, "they're actually Cryomines."

"Cryo- wha-" Alister began, but was cut off by a loud bang, followed by the sound of rapid crystallization.

Kaden grinned to himself as he put down his Nanotools and looked up from his work at last. 

Alister stood in the corner of the workshop with most of his lower body encased in solid ice. His frozen pose clearly showed him still reaching out to grab the device from where it had sat on the table, but the blast pattern of crystal showed that it had detonated at about his chest height.

' _ That means the seeker function worked,' _  Kaden noted observantly.

"I said," the tan Lombax began again, in a tone of mock annoyance at having to repeat himself. "They're not ice-grenades, they're ‘Cryomines’. They've been designed to chase down any enemy that gets too close to them. I left them armed and in this far corner because I was testing how long they could last after activation."

"Wh-wh-when w-were you go-go-going to tell me that?!" stuttered Alister through chattering teeth.

"I wasn't," answered Kaden with a mischievous grin. "Hmmm, seems like they've lost some of their coating capacity. I guess it's been sitting a little too long," he noted aloud in disappointment. He'd been trying to work out the kinks in the cryo-formula for ages, but it seemed he still had a ways to go.

"Wh-wh-whatever, j-j-just get me out!" Alister demanded.

Kaden put up his hands, "Don't worry, I will… just chill out for a second."

Alister suddenly grasped the true danger he was in and his eyes filled with dread as he stared at the grinning face of his sadistic friend. He knew what was coming next.

Kaden then called out across the room, "Thermal Adjuster, charged forty percent positive."

Upon hearing the command, one of Kaden's two lab-bots rolled over toward Alister before raising a red glowing panel in one of its extending arms. It stopped just short of Alister's frozen form and held the device a few centimeters away. Seconds later, droplets of water began rolling down Alister's legs onto the floor as the ice began to melt.

Kaden then walked slowly towards his friendcicle, "Now Alister, what have we learned about touching things that don't belong to us?" he asked in the voice of a parent lecturing a child. "It's not very n-'ice'."

Alister simply stared back at his tan friend coldly, determined to endure.

"Don't give me that ‘icy’ glare," Kaden continued unabashed. "You've always had a bad habit of touching things you shouldn't. This time it was just a little cryogel, but what if next time you touch something that could actually hurt you? I 'shiver' to think what could happen."

Alister's expression didn't change, it was ‘frozen’ in its refusal to show any form of reaction towards Kaden’s brand of torture.

The malicious Lombax frowned and waved a hand at his lab-bot, which then removed the heating panel from the half-thawed Lombax.

"Oh co-come on," Alister chattered.

"I don't care if you're bored, you need to stop touching things in my workshop." Kaden pressed. "Are we 'crystal' clear?"

"F-f-fine, I'm s-s-sorry. Now unf-f-freeze me already!"

"That's what I 'thaw'-t," Kaden said authoritatively before waving his lab-bot back to work.

After about a minute, Alister was finally freed from his icy prison and he turned to Kaden with an irritated expression.

"That better not have been the 'test' you called me down for," he growled angrily.

"Sheesh, no need to get ‘frosty’," Kaden replied. "Don't worry, that wasn't what I needed you for. We're going to be testing out my latest personal-defense energy-weapon. I call it 'The Metal Storm'." Kaden then swiftly moved to another part of the workshop to grab a hover cart before beginning to place various pieces of equipment onto it.

"Then I'm still willing to help you and I’ll even forget about the Cryomine thing... but only if you promise to cool it with the ice puns," threatened Alister with a serious tone.

Kaden froze, then, with a huge grin on his face, he slowly turned to look at Alister, "Ok. I'll 'cool' it," he agreed as he restrained himself from laughing out loud.

Realizing what he'd just done, Alister bowed his head in defeat and his ears drooped sadly to their sides, before he began walking listlessly forward to join Kaden in loading up the cart.

Once they'd finished loading the materials, Kaden's other lab-bot attached itself to the cart. The tan Lombax then ordered the assistant to follow them to the lift and the three of them left the workshop.

* * *

The group emerged through the back entrance of the main Science Field building. Their destination was a combat testing arena in the Military Field that Mercatus had rented for Kaden's use.

Kaden had heard of quicker ways to get to their destination if they took the lifts down and traveled through the mountain itself. Supposedly, a few floors of the Science Field actually connected directly with floors from the Art and Military Fields, but as a level one student, he wasn't allowed to access them… or technically know about them for that matter.

When the two Lombaxes finally arrived at the underground arena, Kaden was pleased to find that it had been set up exactly as he'd requested.

Scraps of metal were heaped into bins on the side of the room and two lifter-bots with magnetic attachments stood waiting patiently next to them. There were also three combat test androids stationed on the other side of the room, each equipped with both a projectile weapon and a plasma-based weapon.

Kaden got to work immediately, explaining how his invention worked to Alister as he attached over a dozen nodes and power couples to his friend’s armor.

"The Metal Storm generates strong magnetic fields around its user," Kaden explained. "The idea is to pick up scraps of debris from the battlefield and throw them around as makeshift weapons. It should also be useful as a shield for blocking both solid matter or plasma-based projectiles. The system itself sucks up a ton of power though, so there won't be much anti-grav assistance. That means you'll have to carry most of the weight of what you pick-up yourself."

When he was finished, Kaden ordered the lifter bots to spread small amounts of scrap around the arena while Alister took up a position in its center. When everything was ready Kaden left the arena floor and moved to the observation room.

Alister gave his friend the final thumbs up and Kaden activated the device on Alister's suit remotely.

There was a sudden pulse of energy that emanated out from where Alister stood. The white-furred Lombax could see graphic representations of a dozen small magnetic fields blooming into existence, represented with dozens of vector lines in his helmet's HUD.

The fields themselves were invisible, but their presence could be seen in the wave-like pattern of shuddering scrap metal that rippled out from Alister's feet as the magnetic fields burst into life before stabilizing and becoming calm once more.

"You should be able to see the magnetic fields now," said Kaden over Alister's helmet intercom. "Try moving them with your hands."

At Kaden's command, Alister slowly raised his arms, where the main control nodes had been placed.

Despite being able to guess what would happen, Alister was still amazed to find that the magnetic fields responded directly to his movements. He then proceeded to move his hands and arms up and down and side to side experimentally.

Soon he began experimenting with the scrap around him. He found that whenever the lines on his visor, representing the magnetic fields, came into contact with a piece of metal on the floor, that metal would be pulled into the fields as if it were a piece of wood caught in a heavy tide. The objects would then settle into a gently floating pattern within the magnetic fields' center that followed along its vector lines.

As Alister became more comfortable with the device, he decided to set about collecting all the bits of metal off the floor and gathering them into the various magnetic fields.

“Now try combining fields,” Kaden commanded over the radio.

“How do I do that?” replied Alister.

“Just make two or more fields touch,” Kaden explained. “If their centers get close enough, the Metal Storm’s system processor will rearrange the field projectors automatically.”

Alister did as he was told and commanded two fields to collide. As they touched, the vectors lines became chaotic as their magnetic fields interfered with each other. However, a second later, the lines realigned and became one, single field. Larger than either of the first two and containing all the metallic bits that they had collected.

With a little more instruction, he soon mastered how to create new fields at will and delete current ones with a snap of his fingers. All the while the shards of metal scrap flew and danced through the air like leaves in a heavy wind. He had complete control of a literal metal storm with nothing more than his fingertips and his NID.

From what he could see, Alister was growing more confident that the Metal Storm could make a decent combat weapon. Most importantly though, he found that it was a lot of fun to play puppetmaster to scrap metal.

After 'experimenting' on his own for a few minutes, the white-furred Lombax eventually forgot about the test completely and his actions devolved into him simply playing around with the device.

For example, he quickly collected all the metal scrap in the room into various magnetic fields, before combining it all into one massive ball of scrap. He then supercharged the field’s power by closing his fists tightly. The increased focus of energy caused the metal in the field to spin faster and faster until it was whipping around in a roiling ball of jagged scrap.

As he watched his creation churn in the air, an idea struck him. 

Alister released his fists, cutting energy to the one remaining field significantly, causing all the scrap to slow back down to a gentle swirling ball.

Once the Metal Storm system had reclaimed enough energy capacity, he created a new magnetic field centered on himself.

The feeling of his armor and insides being tugged by a powerful magnetic force caused a little discomfort at first, but once the field had stabilized he spread it out so that no vector lines ran through him and instead simply spun around him.

With preparations set, Alister pointed at the first, metal-ladened field and then pulled his arm back towards his chest.

The motion caused the metal-saturated field to collide with the new one and, as he then increased the power of the one around him, it began absorbing the material from the first.

He continued like this for nearly a minute, until every scrap of metal was spinning around his body as the two fields had completely merged into one.

For the final touch, Alister squeezed both hands into fists again and within seconds he found himself standing at the center of a massive metal cyclone that would obey his every command. He could now see the true suitability of giving it the name 'Metal Storm'.

Up in the observation deck, Kaden kept a careful eye on both the status readings of the Metal Storm on his digi-pad as well as Alister. The tan Lombax smiled to himself as he watched his friend visibly lose track of their objective to test the prototype and revert into a child with the newfound ability to move objects with a whim.

Eventually, though, it was time to get back to work, "How does it feel?" he asked over the comm.

"Feels great, getting a little heavy though," replied Alister gleefully. 

Despite his enjoyment, the white-furred Lombax had been noticing that his armor was starting to weigh more, specifically the parts that had Metal Storm nodes attached to them.

It wasn’t a significant strain, but it made every move slightly more taxing and, after playing around for so long, it was starting to tire him out.

"That's normal," insisted Kaden. "I told you that there wouldn't be much grav reduction. You'll just have to carry what you can. I see you figured out how to surround yourself with a metal shell. Try reaching out with your arms then slowly pull them into your chest."

Again, Alister did as he was instructed.

When he reached out with his arms and still closed fists, the magnetic fields slowed and aligned the material evenly around him before settling into a lazy orbit.

Then, as Alister pulled his arms closer, the wall of metal began to swirl around him at a much faster pace, even surpassing what it had done before. The closer his fists got to his chest, the faster the material moved.

Faster and faster it spun around him and, between the friction of the air and intense pressure of the magnetic fields, the metal began to glow hot. 

By the time his hands touched his armor, Alister was surrounded by a whirlwind of angry, cherry-red metal that looked as if it could shred a fully armored Lombax in seconds. From Alister's point of view, having this power at his fingertips was so empowering that it was almost terrifying.

"Alright, it looks stable," came Kaden's voice again. "Moving on to phase two."

"Phase two?" repeated Alister curiously over the comm. He hadn't even known that there was a phase one.

Kaden didn't answer him. Instead, Alister squinted through the fog of metal and could just make out the figures of the three combat drones in the corner suddenly come to life. They then rolled forward and surrounded him. 

The bad feeling that Alister had gotten when Kaden had said 'phase two' was venerated, as he watched the robots release the safety locks from their rifles and take aim.

Before Alister could voice his considerable concerns, the drones opened fire.

Instinctively, the white-furred Lombax threw up his arms to protect himself, but as gunshots rang out, filling the air with the repeating sound of their discharge, Alister felt nothing.

Slowly, with the gunfire still chattering, he raised his head and took a look around.

The drones were still shooting at him and they were definitely pointing directly at him, but the metal slugs they were spraying never reached their target. Instead, they were being immediately swept up in the magnetic field that surrounded him.

Though not being stopped completely, they instead were being veered off course and carried along with the magnetic tide until finally expending enough energy to be absorbed into the maelstrom, becoming just another piece of Alister's collection. 

Still, it was more than enough to feel safe from harm. When he finally realized that he was in no danger, Alister laughed nervously in relief.

"Phase three," said Kaden in monotone.

All at once the firing stopped and the droids lowered their projectile weapons. Then they raised their plasma rifles in unison, once again aiming at Alister's chest.

Unable to help himself, Alister flinched again as the hissing whine of discharging plasma filled his ears, but... yet again nothing hit him.

He looked up once more to find, again to his relief, that the balls of superheated gas were being shattered against the spinning wall of metal and scattering amongst the scrap like glowing flower petals, before being swept up by the magnetic fields as if landing in a flowing river.

As the energy continued to follow along the magnetic field lines, it mixed with the metal scrap, turning entire sections of the dark red debris into bright and radiating oranges, yellows, and even piercing white as the material absorbed the heat.

"I'm glad that part was successful," said Kaden with a clear note of satisfaction. Alister could almost hear his tan-furred friend grinning through the intercom, "I wasn't sure if the magnetic properties of the plasma would be strong enough for this, but it appears to be working out better than expected."

"Yeah, I'm glad too," said Alister in annoyance, though he was sure that his friend had extensively tested the device before firing live rounds at him… well, pretty sure, "If it hadn't worked, then we'd have had to test my theory next. You know, the one about kicking a Lombax in the tail so hard that it comes out the other end?"

Kaden laughed to himself, "I told you already, an average Lombax tail is far too short. It'd never make it through all the intestines," he countered with his usual response to Alister's favorite threat.

"Still worth a try in my opinion," pressed Alister, finishing their joke.

"All right then, on to the next test," Kaden declared, as he refocused his mind. "Try to hit the drones with the metal by striking out at them, and get creative. In theory, you should be able to make the metal move like a tidal wave and blast a drone in a flood of scrap."

Alister nodded his understanding and turned to face one of the drones that stood around him. He then proceeded to try and do as Kaden wanted, but the task turned out to be much more challenging than he'd expected.

Whenever Alister tried punching forward with his arms, the metal in front of him would fly outward toward his target, but it retained its angular momentum and missed where it was aimed completely.

Alister then tried to compensate by leading his projectiles and taking bigger swings that allowed more material to be launched at once. 

After a few more swings, he was starting to get the hang of predicting the metal’s path, but if he was off with his timing by even just a little, the scrap blast would miss completely and it would then take the white-furred Lombax some serious effort to rein the material back into the funnel around him.

The constantly shifting weight didn't help either. Whenever he threw a chunk of metal, several pieces would always have enough momentum to leave his magnetic field, which would make a node or two on his suit slightly lighter, throwing him off balance slightly.

However, those lost pieces of metal would sometimes brush against the magnetic field again and be unintentionally reabsorbed. Their weight would then suddenly return to him and pull him down on an entirely different body part.

The situation was even worse when the metal managed to escape above him and was then reintegrated as it came back down, forcing him not only to take on the weight again, which he often couldn't see happening, but also the added strain of dissipating the additional gravitational momentum of its fall.

The whole process was literally like trying to juggle thousands of heavy metallic shards. Each change in weight was relatively small, but the strain of all of them combined was quickly adding up and Alister's stamina was rapidly draining. On top of that, he was still barely able to hit the targets… and they were stationary!

"Kaden," wheezed an exhausted Alister, "I don't think this is a very practical offensive weapon," he admitted sadly. "Don't get me wrong, I like the not getting shot and the whole bending junk to my will parts, but in a firefight, I don't think I'd want to be armed with this."

Kaden pondered Alister's words. In truth, he'd already known that this outcome was a relatively high possibility despite the success of the device's many lab tests. The sad, but all too familiar feeling of a project being mentally labeled a failure began to grow in his chest. Plus, he knew that the system also had another ‘very big’ downside that they hadn't even addressed yet.

"That might not even be the worst of it," said Kaden sullenly over the intercom.

"Then what is?" Alister huffed back.

Alister immediately regretted asking the question the moment he realized how he'd likely get his answer.

With a simple command from Kaden, the two lifter bots reached down in unison and together, picked up a massive metal ingot that had been lying on the floor next to the scrap carts. 

Both androids visibly strained their joints' motors as they lifted the heavy block of metal into one of the now empty carts, which groaned audibly as the considerable weight was added to it. Together the two robots both pushed the cart into the metallic tornado.

At first, Alister was not sure what was going on. He watched the androids let go of the cart and then he watched the cart come closer to him. Then he watched as the cart crossed the threshold of the digital vectors that made up the edge of his moving magnetic fields and made contact with the ingot.

A moment later, Alister was slammed into the ground, the weight of his armor suddenly overwhelming him, as his nodes attempted to lift the cart and the ingot inside.

Alister raised his head from the floor disorientedly and tried desperately to disperse the field around the cart, but succeeded in only pushing more vectors towards it, increasing his suit's focus on trying to lift the new metal.

Luckily for Alister, the magnetic field generator nodes were mostly on the front of his armor, which was now between him and the floor, so most of the weight simply pinned him down. Had he landed on his back, however, he may have been crushed by them.

As Alister struggled in vain to pick himself up again, the weight holding him down suddenly disappeared and he sucked in a massive breath in surprise. 

After blinking a few times curiously, Alister slowly got up to his knees. But then the bits of metal that had been left spinning above him were retaken by gravity and the white Lombax was forced to dive back down and cover his head as the shards of scrap rained down onto the floor.

After the last clangs of metal had faded out of existence, Kaden walked out into the arena area and made his way up to Alister's sprawled form without even a glance toward him. His eyes were instead glued to his digi-pad and his free hand stroked his chin as he considered the results.

"Was that actually necessary?" asked Alister as he rolled over onto his back and looked up at Kaden.

"Well this was a test of the system's limits and that includes user limits, so… kind of," Kaden answered with a half-hearted shrug. He then scribbled a few more notes on his digi-pad before attaching it to his belt and leaning down to give Alister a hand up.

"I'll admit that it was pretty cool, but it falls just short of actual practicality," Alister declared honestly. "Maybe with years of practice and another hundred pounds of muscle I'd be comfortable taking it into a fight, but not now."

Kaden nodded his reluctant agreement. He had also already given up on the Metal Storm in its current form and had already started pondering if there was any way that he could salvage the design.

Maybe he could attach the system to a large disk-like object that could be launched at a group of enemies, making a single, localized hurricane of magnetic force. Or maybe even a large magnetic ball that could roll across a battlefield, crushing and picking up enemies as it went.

The only problem he could foresee would be figuring out how the user could control and direct such weaponry without the nodes being connected to, and subsequently interfering with, a user's standard range of actions.

"I had hoped to use the Metal Storm as a way to fight Kor without giving him an opening to attack, but I guess not," Kaden admitted disappointedly.

"Kaden, I get that it was a big deal," Alister began with mild concern, "but we haven't even seen or heard about him in months. Ever since he got promoted to level two he's been a ghost. Don't you think you're being a little too obsessive?"

"That only makes it worse," retorted Kaden with a shake of his head. "The way I see it, I've worked for all this time and I'm still no closer to beating him than I was back then. We're not even level two's yet. Kor accomplished that in his first few weeks."

"Then I have some good news for you!" shouted Varick from the arena entrance.

Neither Kaden nor Alister had seen him come in and the two spun around in surprise.

"Oh?" said Kaden with a curious yet cautious tone. 

He was a little annoyed at how the president always seemed to pop up as if he'd been watching the whole time, but he was also intrigued because Varick usually only ever showed himself for a reason.

"Indeed," beamed the tall, white-furred Lombax happily, ignoring Kaden's constant expression of annoyance towards him, "for both of you in fact. As of today, you are both level twos!"

* * *

Kaden, Alister, and Varick all sat in a Military Field lounge, located near the Military Field’s stardock. Unlike the Science Field, however, these lounges were stripped to the bare minimum and could barely be considered worthy of their name. The area was nothing but hard chairs, thin tables, and a few holo-screens tuned to Nova Academy channels. 

The only real purpose such facilities served were as staging areas for teams getting ready to board one of the shuttles docked on this side of the mountain or meeting up with teammates and going to some kind of extracurricular group activity… like war.

"What do you mean we're level twos?" Kaden asked again.

Varick had refused to answer the question until after they'd cleaned up the arena and made it to the lounge area.

"Exactly as I said," the president began after he'd gotten comfortable, "in just a short while you, Kaden, and you too, Mr. Azimuth, will both be receiving official notification through your NIDs that your status as Nova Academy students has been upgraded to that of level two for the Science Field and Military Field respectively. You'll also be receiving all the security clearance and privileges that come with it," Varick finished while looking very pleased about it.

"But why?" asked Alister. He had expected Kaden to be promoted quickly in the Science Field, his friend was a genius after all, but he himself had only performed marginally better than the average student in all of his classes. He hadn't expected to get promoted until at least the end of the first semester.

"Because, Alister, ," replied Varick with an encouraging smile. "You sell yourself far too short. Getting second in the MSE Tournament on top of your near perfect aptitude for all basic weapons and combat makes you an excellent candidate for promotion; unlike Kaden here who scored a zero in the tournament. It's a good thing that he's a Science Field student and not a Military Fielder," Varick added with a laugh.

Kaden tried to give Varick a dirty look, but nothing could penetrate the smiling white Lombax's aura of cheerfulness, "In fact," he continued undaunted, "it should also be considered a miracle that he got promoted in the Science Field at all, what with his extreme lack of motivation for class work, or anything really, that doesn't happen in his little workshop. He's not even signed up for a single extracurricular activity in the entire Academy."

"Why am I being promoted then?" questioned Kaden in annoyance. He was sure Varick was purposefully prodding him with his words, but he'd had enough.

Varick simply smiled back at him, "Because your scores are well above that which the average level one student would display. That's partly thanks to me, though," the smiling Lombax finished with a self-satisfied look.

"And how's that?" Kaden asked with a sigh, realizing that Varick had yet again been meddling in his life.

"Because I told your instructors to give you all that extra work and those harder tests," Varick said proudly. "I'm sure you've noticed the schoolwork you were getting was twice as difficult as your classmates'." Kaden looked confused at Varick's words, which made Varick take pause and match his confused expression. "Didn't you notice that the material you were studying and being graded on were from higher level classes?" he asked.

Kaden tried to recall ever having thought his school work was too difficult before shaking his head slowly, "No, I don’t ‘think’ so," he answered simply.

Varick's smile didn't disappear, but it twitched for a moment and now looked slightly forced, "Well that's... That's actually really irritating," he said through his teeth. "Well, whatever. Now you two can leave Nova this vacation and still get school credits," he added dismissively as his expression returned to its usual cheerfulness.

This time, both Kaden and Alister looked confused.

"I was planning on experimenting in the workshop all winter," said Kaden with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not going anywhere."

"And I was going to visit Kreeli Comet for a while," added Alister, "to help with the mining security detail."

"I know, that's what I was talking about," replied Varick. "Well, not about what Kaden was saying, he's quite mistaken. You see, both of you have been officially contracted by Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries for the duration of the vacation period."

Kaden looked at Alister, "Did you know about this?" he asked.

Alister shook his head, showing as much bewilderment and surprise on his face as Kaden.

Varick simply continued talking, "It is for precisely this type of situation that Nova Academy even allows level two and three students to go on contracted missions at all. Originally, at Nova’s founding, no students were allowed to work outside of the academy until level four, but some families, like the Azimuths, usually make their children come home for the vacation periods to help with family business and learn about their future responsibilities. This has caused some problems, however, since many students use the vacation periods to try and improve their class ranking. This meant that the ones who instead went out and gained real-galaxy experience often unjustly fell behind. Eventually, Nova Academy allowed level two and three students to complete contracts by request so that students could learn about their likely future occupation and still get credit for it."

"Hold on," interrupted Kaden. "I was requested too?"

Varick nodded and was about to speak again, but paused as he noticed the chronometer on one of the Holo-boards, "You know what?" he said as he leaned back in his chair. "Rather than have me explain the details, why don't you just read the request for yourselves, hmm?"

Just as the president finished his sentence a message alert blinked in Kaden's peripheral vision and from Alister's simultaneous reaction, it was apparent that he must have received one too. 

Kaden and Alister both touched the surface of the table they were sitting at and a holo-screen that was automatically logged into through their respective NID was displayed for both of them. Both Lombaxes then quickly moved to their mailboxes and opened the message from their NIDs.

Just as Varick said, they had both received an official congratulations at having been selected for promotion to level two. This was followed by a list of floors in their respective fields that they now had access to, new classes that they were now allowed to take, a small section about school events they were now allowed to participate in, and an explanation as to how the contract system worked. The latter, for the most part, had already been explained to them by Varick.

About a minute into reading the first message, a second one appeared. They both opened it as well and found it to be the contract request from Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries that Varick had mentioned. 

In it was explained that the company wanted them to work over the winter vacation for the Kreeli Comet Security Division. It also explained that there had been frequent sightings of Agorian ships around the Comet’s current sector recently.

Agorians were a very aggressive warrior race that made a living by attacking and pillaging settlements or by selling themselves as mercenaries. It looked like the CEO of Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries, Alister's father, was concerned that they might attempt a raid on his mining operations, thus the request for extra security.

"This is the first I've heard about any of this," said Alister, somewhat irritated about being left out of the loop. "This looks like a copy of a formal job posting too. Father is probably hiring more than just a few new security forces besides us."

"Well I can't say I blame him," Varick said. "Agorians are just dumb enough to think they have a chance at successfully raiding a Lombax territory. They never seem to learn, though, that might be because they stopped evolving as a species. When does it say you leave?"

Alister checked the message again, "It says we have until the end of the semester to respond. I guess that's when we go," he answered.

Kaden scratched his chin, "Hmmm, that's not enough time to finish any of my current projects," he said as he thought about the contract. "I hope Mercatus will be ok with what I've made so far."

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine," said Varick dismissively before standing up. "Besides, the best part of this great news has yet to come. Now that you're a level two, Kaden, I can begin authorizing you for official Science Field missions and contracts! I already have a short list that you'll be perfect for."

"Funny, I don't remember giving my consent to anything like that," Kaden said, knowing there was probably nothing he could do about it.

"Just a formality," replied Varick cheerfully. "Well then, just in case I don't get a chance to say it later, or, you know... forget, let me wish you both good luck on your first Nova Academy contract."

Varick then left the table and strode jovially out of the lounge doors. Kaden shook his head before turning back to the message to read the contract in more detail.

The timing of the request was actually pretty good. He still needed to test the majority of his latest inventions in actual combat before he used them to fight Kor. And, if he was lucky enough, or if the Agorians were unlucky enough, he'd soon get the chance to do just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, Kaden first ponders the basic concepts for weapons that would eventually become the Tornado Launcher and the Dynamo of Doom. He mentions the only problem would be with controlling the weapons, but both devices are eventually controlled by the Sixaxis of the PS3 controller.
> 
> The Agorians - are a violent, warrior race who like to fight more than anything else. As Varick mentions in this chapter, they have stopped evolving as a species in official canon.


	2. Kreeli Comet

Kaden and Alister were traveling on a transport ship that was heading for the Lombax-held territory of Kreeli Comet. They had been aboard the ship for nearly twelve hours since it departed from Mt. Supernova, and were now on final approach vectors to their destination.

Before leaving their temporary quarters in the passenger section, the two friends checked to make sure that they had repacked all their gear. Once they were sure everything was secure they made their way to one of the ship's airlocks, and waited for it to dock so they could get off.

They weren't the only ones getting off here though.

Several other burly-looking Lombaxes stood waiting with them. All wore some kind of combat armor and had weapons hanging from various straps or holsters. Some even had impressive scars that were large enough as to not be obscured by their fur.

It was likely that everyone was here for the same reason.

All of them were clearly capable fighters and most seemed to know each other quite well. They spoke and laughed with one another, talking about recent missions or battles and about the likelihood of getting to score a few Agorian kills on this one. 'Professional Mercenaries' was the vibe that Kaden got from them.

There was a loud hiss of air being exposed to a vacuum and it quickly filled the ears of everyone in the waiting area, drawing their attention. A moment later the airlock doors opened wide to reveal a long tunnel leading into the starport.

The group calmly made their way through the door and down the tunnel until they came out the other end. Here they found themselves in a large staging area that was full of other Lombaxes, crates of equipment ready to be transported, and dozens of robotic beings.

One of these particular robots stood, with digi-pad in hand, at the foot of the exit ramp. Most of the Lombaxes greeted it casually and walked past as it marked them down on its pad, but it also stopped a few as they walked by and pulled them aside, making them wait out of the way until the rest of the group was processed. Alister and Kaden were the last to leave.

"Hello Bob," greeted Alister with a familiar tone.

"Greetings young master," replied the robot with the digi-pad in a synthetic voice. "I hope your flight was comfortable?"

"Nothing to complain about. This is my friend Kaden," Alister said as he introduced Kaden.

Bob ran down the list on his digi-pad until he found Kaden's name, "Yes, I see. If you wouldn't mind, please come over here with the others for orientation," he said simply.

Bob seemed to be only talking to Kaden as he indicated the area where the other Lombaxes stood after having been pulled aside earlier.

"It's ok Bob," interjected Alister, "Kaden's already been registered and I can show him around."

Bob stared blankly at Alister as his positronic brain processed the information for a moment. Then he nodded his metal head consentingly before turning to address the other Lombaxes.

Having gotten Bob's permission, Alister walked across the staging area and down a hallway with Kaden following behind.

As they left the area Kaden caught the beginning of Bob's orientation, "Greetings. My serial designation is AMDM-303, but you may refer to me by my informal designation 'Bob'. I will be guiding you first-time employees to the living quarters which you will be using for the duration of your employment, unless otherwise necessary. I will also be responsible for delivering your daily duties and assignments while you are under the employ of the Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries Defense Division. Before that, however, you will need to be registered and get NID security clearance... If you would follow me please."

"What was that about?" asked Kaden as he and Alister walked out of earshot.

"Ah, that's just Bob," Alister answered. "His protocol with any new employee to the Defense Division is to show them around and explain the way things work. Since you were registered with the Engineering Division that time you came with your dad, your NID is already on file. I, on the other hand, have been a part of the Defense Division many times," Alister finished, with an air of pride.

Kaden followed his friend all the way to the living quarters. The rooms there were divided up so that each one contained two sleeping capsules. Alister knew the place well and, after checking the room registry with his NID, was able to lead them straight to their own quarters. Upon arriving they dropped their bags before getting ready to unload them.

While the two had not brought much in the way of personal items, Kaden had quite a bit more equipment than Alister. Most of it experimental.

After Alister finished unpacking all of his gear, he turned to help his tan friend unpack the remainder of his.

"Well that's all done," Alister declared as Kaden put away the lead boxing containing highly-radioactive power cell components under his bed. "Let's head over to engineering and see what all this security is ‘really’ about."

"The engineering department?" repeated Kaden curiously. "Don't you mean the management offices?"

Alister shook his head knowingly, "Something tells me that your dad will be a little easier to reach than my dad."

* * *

There were many separate stations and modules all over Kreeli Comet that were part of the Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries complex, but the heart of the mining operation had been dubbed Miner's City by the men, women, and robots who worked on the comet.

Originally only consisting of a single spaceport and a trillium processing plant, Miner's City had slowly grown as more modules were added over the years as the mining operations on the comet increased. Today it stood like an actual city, nestled in and filling up a massive crater on the comet's surface.

Kaden and Alister had both taken a tram shuttle from the Defense Division's barracks to the R&D building of the Engineering Division, which was located on the edge of Miner's city.

After arriving, they approached the robotic secretary at the front desk and were about to ask her permission to enter, but she spoke first, "Here to see the chief engineer, are we?" she said in a bored sounding, metallic tone.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Kaden asked in reply.

The secretary put her elbow on her desk and laid her head on her metal hand before pointing to Alister with the other, "Well, he's clearly an Azimuth and they only ever come down here to yell at Cerdas. As for you..." she began after shifting her finger to point at Kaden, "You look just like Cerdas. I'm guessing you're either his clone or his offspring. He's in his office on the third level. If you get there and there’s no office, then he's either in his back-up office on the second level or in the med-bay."

Having said what she wanted, the secretary returned to her holo-monitor and continued her work with disinterest.

Alister looked at Kaden and shrugged. The two of them then left to go find Kaden's father's office.

Kaden had been to the Engineering Division before, so he knew his way around. This building was the R&D division’s office wing, but it wasn't very big since it only housed facilities for deskwork. Kaden much preferred the R&D’s mechanics labs, or even just the machine shop, over this area.

Kaden’s father had once said that he wasn't even allowed to bring active experimental material into this building, but, judging by the secretary's comments and by the fact that Kaden's father's office had been on the fifth floor the last time he'd visited, it was obvious that his dad didn't always follow that rule.

* * *

They both arrived at a large set of double doors with the words 'Head of Azimuth Engineering Division' on it. It was on the third level and, luckily, seemed to be intact.

Alister waved his hand over the door control and it opened upon reading his NID.

The doors pulled back to reveal a large room with several holo-projectors attached to the ceiling. The room had a typical office-style theme, but something was very wrong.

A large amount of dust and debris filled the area where the office owner's desk should have been, leaving only the sheared off bolts that had held it to the ground sticking out. The desk itself was several feet away... stuck halfway into the wall, about two feet above the floor.

At the far end of the room, an adult, tan-furred Lombax stood studying the large amount of information projected onto one of the walls, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he focused on it. He didn't seem to have noticed them come in.

Kaden looked to Alister and the two Lombaxes shared a serious look and a nod of understanding. Quietly, they both began making their way toward where the older Lombax stood, careful not to do anything that would draw attention.

As the two got closer to their target, they crouched down low, so as not to be seen in their target’s peripheral vision. Their approach was skillful and well practiced.

However, just as they were approaching pouncing distance the elder's ear twitched.

The older Lombax suddenly spun around and Alister dove hard to his side out of sheer reflex, narrowly avoiding a glowing beam of energy that was fired at him from a gauntlet on the elder's arm.

Kaden took the opportunity to charge forward, but the older Lombax was much swifter than he looked. The tan-furred adult quickly turned his gauntlet on Kaden and opened fire.

Kaden took a direct hit to the chest and fell to the ground in surprise, but, even more surprising, nothing happened. 

The young Lombax got swiftly back to his feet and examined his chest in confusion. Then, a few seconds later, Kaden noticed that he was gradually feeling lighter. 

Eventually, his body became so light, that he started to lift off the ground. He grabbed for something to hold onto, but there was nothing to grip. His body then continued to rise, higher and higher, until at last he struck the ceiling and was halted.

"Hello son," the elder Lombax said cheerfully as he looked up at Kaden. He then turned to Alister, "Quick as always, eh lad? If only ‘my’ son was as nimble on his feet," he said with a tone of mock disappointment.

Kaden thrashed around on the ceiling, trying to stabilize himself and get his footing, "What kind of parent shoots their kid the moment they see them?" Kaden demanded before he managed to sit cross-legged on the ceiling.

"The same parent whose child tries to sneak up on them while they're focused on work," his father answered unapologetically.

He then tapped a button on his gauntlet and gravity suddenly returned to Kaden.

Though gravity reasserted itself gradually, Kaden’s landing was not a soft one. 

Alister and Kaden's father winced with matching grins as the smack rang out across the room.

Kaden picked himself up off the ground gingerly before rubbing the part of his back that he'd landed on.

After recovering, he approached his father, stopping just short of arm's reach. The two Lombaxes eyed each other cautiously, before both smiled and embraced tightly.

"It's good to see you Kaden," the elder Lombax said happily. "How's Nova Academy?"

"It was... interesting the first few weeks," Kaden began as the two separated, "but I've gotten used to the place now."

His father nodded a few times as he listened, "Did you get in any kind of trouble yet?" he asked with an inquisitive stare.

"No," Kaden answered honestly. "I haven't officially broken any rules and there isn't anything on my record."

His father stared at him suspiciously, "Sorana's keeping a close eye on you, huh?" he asked with a smile.

Kaden averted his eyes and bowed his head, "Yes," he admitted gloomily.

His father laughed, "Thank goodness for that at least. How are you getting along with your fellow students? Any bullies?" he asked next.

Kaden looked back up at his father and was confused by the questions, "Of course not. You know I haven't had a ‘bully’ problem since that time with the toilets in Prime Ed."

Kaden's father laughed again, much harder this time, "Yes, that was a fun trip to the principal's office," he said reminiscently. "Not that they all weren't fun of course. Now, are you sure you don't have a bully problem? Nobody at school is giving you a hard time?" he pressed.

Kaden simply shook his head and his father sighed, "You know Kaden, I received a holo-vid of the highlights from this year's opening tournament."

Kaden threw his head back and groaned. His father's attitude suddenly turned serious, "I watched how you lost to that student in the red armor, now tell me the truth... Are you plotting some kind of revenge and building an arsenal of dangerous weapons?"

Kaden went back to staring at the ground and hesitated a moment before answering, "Yes," he admitted guiltily.

Cerdas laid a hand on his son's head and ruffled his ears, "That's my boy," he said with a smile. Kaden looked up and grinned back at him.

Alister put his face in his palm.

"So what is that actually for?" Kaden asked, changing the subject and pointing to the gauntlet on his father's arm.

"I call it a Degravitator," Cerdas explained enthusiastically. "It temporarily reverses the effects of gravity so that the miners can move heavy equipment with ease. I designed it to be incredibly efficient for short term activation, so there's no need for large grav-rigs to move a few pieces of equipment here and there."

Kaden raised an eyebrow at his father, "Didn't you tell me that you weren't allowed to bring experimental weapons into the offices?" he asked as he remembered his father's complaints about the rule and his constant issues with it.

"He's not," answered a steely and authoritative voice from the side of the room.

Cerdas, Alister, and Kaden all turned in unison to look at the large hologram depicting a stern looking, white-furred Lombax standing rigidly with his hands behind his back. His attention was focused solely on Cerdas.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times not to bring your insane inventions here," the Lombax lectured with an air of absolute authority. "You have your own place, with reinforced walls and maintenance workers, for you to blow up at your leisure, and yet you insist on destroying my office space."

"But Azimuth," Cerdas whined childishly, "the holo-projectors in there suck. The ones in here are way better for holo-vid gam- err, I mean... the important conference calls I am constantly making. All the back and forth travel is wasted time and it's inefficient... and boring. Besides, I'm very careful with the equipment."

Mr. Azimuth sighed and shook his head, "If I could find a single engineer in this galaxy that could design trillium rigs half as well as you... I know you Cerdas, and I know that it's only a matter of time before you use that thing to throw another desk through a wall." Every physical Lombax in the room went stone-faced at once. "Where is your desk, anyway?" Mr. Azimuth asked as he noted the missing piece of office furniture and started scanning the room.

Kaden and Alister both stared through the holographic Mr. Azimuth at said office desk, where it jutted out from the wall on the other side.

Just as the Elder Azimuth was turning around, Cerdas spoke up, "I moved it, for uh... safety reasons,” he tried to explain desperately. “Yeah, that’s it. I didn't want to risk doing exactly what you just said... even if there's ‘no way’ I would have made a mistake like trying to open a drawer, forgetting that the gauntlet was still activated." 

Mr. Azimuth looked down at Cerdas with an unconvinced expression. He continued to eye his best/worst employee suspiciously. 

"Come on Azimuth,” continued Cerdas, trying to change the subject. “I know you didn't call just to lecture me on my equipment handling, did you?"

Mr. Azimuth sighed and shook his head, "No, I called to see how you were doing on those orbit and trajectory calculations for Kreeli and the IRIS."

Cerdas gave a half-grin. He was pleased to know his initial predictions were right, but at the same time, it was a solemn truth, "They're not looking too good, Azimuth. We may need to resort to plan B."

Mr. Azimuth sighed again, this time clearly displeased, "You would think that if the Galactic Government wanted to protect IRIS so badly, they'd at least foot the bill for stopping it from colliding into our territory."

This time Kaden interjected, much to Alister's visible displeasure, "Yeah, because once it's in our territory, it'd technically be ours... wouldn't it?" he asked.

There was a silence in the air for a long while, then a ghost of a grin twitched against Mr. Azimuth's concrete face, "You're Cerdas's son, Kaden yes? Hmmm, an interesting notion, I'll see what legal has to say about it." The holographic Lombax then turned back to Cerdas, "In the meantime, verify your findings, but don't let them leak out. Understood?"

Cerdas nodded, "You got it, boss. Anything else?"

Mr. Azimuth shook his head, "That's all for now."

As the holographic form of Mr. Azimuth reached up to cut the connection, Alister timidly spoke, "Father, I... um..."

Despite being holographic, Mr. Azimuth's eyes were not inviting as he looked down at his son, "Alister, you know I am very busy. Our next conversation isn't scheduled until the end of next week. If it is not absolutely important, we can discuss it then."

Alister's expression was crestfallen, but he tried to hide it. He simply nodded dutifully in acknowledgement of what his father said.

After a short moment, Mr. Azimuth reached for the communication controls again, but caught Cerdas's disapproving eye and raised an eyebrow.

Once again Mr. Azimuth let out a sigh, "Alister," the holographic Lombax said dryly without looking down.

Alister stood up straighter as he replied, "Yes sir?"

"I heard you are doing well at school. You placed second in the MSE tournament and have already managed to earn the rank of Level two in the academy. That is a commendable accomplishment," he added with a slight nod of approval.

"Thank you, sir," Alister replied stiffly and without emotion, though it was clear from the way his chest puffed out that he had been filled with pride.

Mr. Azimuth continued, "Because of that, you have been able to accept my contract before you left, so you will be receiving school accreditation for your efforts here. However, do not think that this means you are guaranteed a good report. I expect you to complete your missions and patrols with all the proficiency of a hired security officer. Is this understood?"

"Yes. sir," Alister replied, just as stiffly as before.

"About that," Kaden interrupted, once again making Alister show hints of emotion in the form of concern, "the contract didn't mention anything specific about what's going on with the Agorians?"

Mr. Azimuth turned to look at Kaden before addressing both of them, "In the recent months there have been several instances of Agorian ships intruding on Kreeli starspace. For that reason, I increased security and shortly after, as I had feared, a large scale Agorian assault force then ran the shipping blockades around Kreeli and engaged the comet's defenses."

Kaden and Alister were stunned. They had both thought that they were just here as a precautionary measure. It was a surprise to hear that not only were the Agorians actually dumb enough to attack a Lombax territory, but that they had already done so.

Kaden's father saw their expressions and chimed in, "We don't know what's got them so riled up in this sector or what they were after, but they didn't manage to damage any of the civilian property or the mining operations. However, it wasn't a complete success for us."

Mr. Azimuth continued from there, "Their attack formation was widely spread out and it was clear that their intention was to try and land on the comet itself. During the battle, a few of the over-watch satellites went down, leaving several blind spots in the monitoring grid. After the battle, the comet's surface was sensor swept thoroughly, but there may be Agorians hiding out in some of the smaller craters or abandoned mining sites. Most of the new recruits will be used primarily as scouting forces to make sure that nothing is lurking on Kreeli that isn't Lombax."

Kaden's father then spoke next, "Now I know you boys have been on Kreeli's surface before, but I'll tell you to be careful anyway. You never know what you might find out there in the ice," he paused for a moment as if remembering something before smiling and continuing, "And I do mean you could find 'anything'," he said with a knowing look to the holographic Mr. Azimuth who then nodded in agreement.

Kaden didn't know what they were talking about and asked about it, but they both dismissed it and changed the subject. However, Kaden was sure that, if it were important, he'd find out eventually.

* * *

Most Lombaxes rely on their agility and speed to avoid taking damage as much as for inflicting it. Naturally, the extremely nimble race designed a device that complimented such skills.

Most hoverboots were a sturdy pair of simple combat boots, combined with several high-density ion coils. When activated, the coils superheated and ionized the air before blasting it from the bottom of the boots as an intense plasma stream, thus propelling the wearer across the ground at great speeds.

Kaden was currently strapping on his hoverboots in the staging bunker of the Kreeli hoverboot racecourse. He was also wearing his personal armor, newly upgraded with experimental equipment, and he was looking forward to trying out some of its features in an open world environment.

As per company policy, Kaden and Alister were both required to get a medical check-up and complete a proficiency run for the use of hoverboots on the practice course. The surface of Kreeli was vast and filled with craters and crevices. Patrolling on foot was an essential part of defending Kreeli Comet.

"This ought to be good," Alister said as he finished suiting up and eyed Kaden's outfit. "How much of that suit is still considered experimental?"

Kaden finished putting on his gear as well and stood up to face Alister, "Life's an experiment!" he proclaimed proudly.

Alister rolled his eyes and then looked back at him with concern, "You mean you have 'that' much untested gear on you? You're ridiculous."

"Well, I brought all this stuff here to ‘be' tested," Kaden retorted. "Now come on."

Alister shook his head and shrugged before putting on his helmet and moving to the airlock with his friend.

Once they were past the first set of doors, they closed behind them and sealed with a hiss. A few seconds later the room was filled with an even louder hissing noise and the temperature dropped dramatically as freezing air swept in through the slow-opening second set of doors. Kaden rubbed his gloved hands together as he adjusted to the low temperature, his breath crystallizing as it left his mouth.

The two Lombaxes walked out into a pure white landscape that reached out into the horizon where it met the vastness of outer space.

This entire magnificent scene, however, was muffled by an unending flurry of snow that covered everything in sight. The wind blew hard and Kaden felt it hit his face and ears, bringing its chilling touch to his skin even through his fur.

Kaden gave his suit a mental command and the main power source in his chest glowed. Within seconds he could feel his internal heating system literally warming up.

"What? Can't stand a little cold?" Alister asked mockingly as he weighed his wrench in his hand.

Kaden shrugged while holding his own wrench, "It's not that I can't. I just don't have to and so I choose not to," he answered without a trace of shame.

Alister replied with a slight grin followed by the sudden roar of his hoverboots being activated and turned up to full throttle.

The white-furred Lombax then burned a trail in the snow as he blasted off into the horizon. Kaden laughed to himself at Alister’s sudden start, then he fired up his own boots and chased after him.

According to the obstacle course's parameters, Bob would monitor them as they began the course and would record their times as they completed two laps around it. 

The course slowly climbed in elevation as it went on and contained three accelerator pads, two spring-loaded contraptions simply called 'jumpers', one set of kick pads, and a hoverbolt that would launch them off a cliff and force them to glide back down to the starting position, ending the lap.

Alister hit the first accelerator pad smoothly and the pad's intense gravity accelerator doubled his speed. This propelled him quickly to the first jumper.

Upon reaching the circular device in the ground, it released its massive, internal spring, rapidly raising its top with Alister on it, before reaching its limit and sending the Lombax flying onto the next ledge.

Kaden followed close behind his friend and hit the first jumper just as it finished resetting. 

The true test of any Hoverboot race was in its sprints. Kaden knew that if he was going to beat Alister, he'd have to pass him before the jumpers or else its reset delay would neutralize any distance he'd gained.

Alister hit the second accelerator pad and was blasted onto a tall ramp, before rocketing off the other side. The speeding Lombax flew cleanly over a sharp drop-off in the ground and slammed into the first of a series of vertical kick pads before pushing down with his feet and kicking off it toward the next one.

As Kaden hit the same kick pad a moment later, he placed his fists down next to his boots on its surface. With a thought, he activated the micro-repulsors that he'd built into his gloves and blasted himself through the air with a flip before slamming hard into the next pad.

The extra boost that his special move gave him granted him almost a full 0.73 seconds on Alister's time for every pad they hit. By the end of the kick pad set, he was close enough to touch Alister's tail.

Kaden remained just behind Alister all the way until they reached an area of the plateau where spikes of ice jutted up from the ground. Flurries of snow decreased their visibility, making it harder to plot out a route ahead of time.

Here Alister began gaining a larger lead over Kaden as his quicker reflexes and instincts gave him the advantage.

Kaden watched unhappily as Alister dove, spun, and weaved through the ice, taking mere milliseconds to both make the decision to move and following through with it. Kaden on the other hand, with his calculating nature, was much slower to react as he took a few more precious milliseconds to make each motion.

The ice forest soon opened up to a small clearing and revealed a large ice wall ahead of them. There was only one gap in the frozen barrier that racers were meant to go through, but it too had been frozen over with a thin sheet of ice.

Alister didn't hesitate or slow down. Instead, he hefted his wrench in his hand and swung it forward with perfect timing, shattering the thin ice like glass.

The white Lombax then zoomed through the gap that he'd made and disappeared from view. Right behind him, Kaden passed through the same gap as well, but immediately pulled back hard on his hoverboots when his friend vanished from sight and, seemingly being replaced by another solid ice wall that stood just a few feet behind the first one.

However, it only took Kaden a moment to regain sight of Alister, who was already speeding off, ninety degrees from his previous path, along the length of the wall, before turning through another gap and disappearing once more.

' _ It's likely that Alister already knew about the wall from past experience,' _  thought Kaden knowingly.

Kaden once again gave chase and curved around the opening, only to find that his path was once again blocked by a third wall and that he needed to now follow along the back of the second wall in order to reach the last accelerator pad. 

Alister was already there and ahead of him by about five seconds. The white-furred Lombax hit the accelerator pad and was boosted straight into the last jumper, before landing up onto the final ledge.

As Kaden landed on the same ledge five seconds later, he was greeted with the image of Alister spinning around the axle of the hoverbolt, while its targeting arrow moved slowly across the ground.

The hoverbolt's axle emitted a directed gravitational field, allowing Alister to spin around like a satellite orbiting a tiny planet. His slight speed variations were also controlling the targeting arrow at his feet. This system allowed a hoverbooter to build intense momentum before being slingshotted in the direction they chose.

Just ahead of the hoverbolt, a ramp with glowing accelerator arrows rose up from the ground and Alister carefully aimed the hoverbolt's arrow right down the center.

With a slight twist of his ankles, Alister broke the equilibrium of the hoverbolt, causing himself to shoot forward along the platforms guide arrow and straight down the ramp, before sailing off into the air.

As he fell, Alister turned back around mid-fall with a huge smile on his face and yelled, "Too slow!" to his opponent.

His voice was barely audible over the rush of the wind, but Kaden heard it clearly. He copied Alister's actions on the hoverbolt and followed his friend's trajectory down the cliffside. 

Alister was just below him as the two fell, the flare from his hoverboots making his position clearly visible through the snow. They glowed brightly as he pointed his hoverboots beneath him to slow his descent and glided his way to the ground.

Kaden, on the other hand, decided to switch his hoverboots off, allowing him to free-fall silently toward his slower friend. The tan Lombax waited until just 'after' any sane Lombax would have, before firing up his boots' ion coils to full power and began slowing his own descent.

The sudden bang of Hoverboots activating just above him startled Alister as he hit the ground with a thud and puff of snow, but he only spared Kaden a quick glance before he took off on his second lap of the course.

Kaden followed close behind, but his landing took longer to recover from than he had hoped. He made up for a few more seconds as they completed the kick pads again, but he was still behind Alister and currently on pace to repeat their earlier lap as they passed through the ice forest.

Brimming with confidence, Alister once again sped through the gap in the first ice wall and disappeared as he turned to go around the second one. 

However, as Kaden followed behind him, the tan Lombax began charging his repulsors.

Using repulsor waves to push off from a kickpad quicker was not the function Kaden had intended for his new devices. In fact, this extra boost technique was merely a byproduct of activating their true function. They had never been intended to repulse him forward, rather, they were designed to repulse heavy weapons fire backward.

There was a loud, piercing whine that echoed through the frozen air as Kaden reached his hands forward. When the sound reached its crescendo, a white energy barrier flashed into life just ahead of him. It emanated from the back of his hands and only covered a small area in front of him, but it was all he needed. 

Using the shield like a plow, Kaden flew arrow-straight toward the first ice barrier and the moment the white disc made contact with the frozen wall, it pulsed at full power and blasted the crystal sheet apart in a shower of rock and snow.

Alister was caught completely off-guard by the sudden force and he nearly lost his balance when the wall next to him exploded. He barely had enough time to register the image of Kaden erupting from the center of the shock wave, followed by an avalanche of debris. 

Still, Alister's reaction time was impressive. The white-furred Lombax managed to avoid the largest chunks of ice as he pressed forward, but he was still showered with the smaller pebbles and hail.

Grinning with satisfaction, Kaden was now racing dead even with his friend. Just ahead of them was the last accelerator pad and with both of them moving at full speed, there was no way for either to gain ground.

Their shoulders pressed against each other as they both fought to line up for the last jumper. 

Unsure of what would happen, but neither willing to give in, the two Lombaxes hit the jump pad simultaneously and were launched as one up to the next level.

All that remained now was the final hoverbolt jump, but neither of the two showed any sign of quitting. Once again they both reached their target at the same time and the two competitors locked into a dance of precarious equilibrium.

The two were struck by a strangely awkward moment that they shared with two lopsided grins. Each of them currently had the ability to affect the arrow's course. Also, if one of them changed their own speed too much above or below that of the other's, they would both violently collide on the small radius of the pad. The only way either of them could proceed was if they worked together to synchronize their movements.

As the arrow was slowly rotated towards the newly arisen accelerator ramp, they both paid close attention to each other's position, but neither one of them could tell who would be first to line up for the opportunity to disengage and move onward. It was like playing a game of musical chairs and when the arrow stopped, the closest one to it would win.

That moment came in an instant and it was Alister who sped off the hoverbolt plate and over the ramp first. Kaden followed, half a second behind, but still 'behind'. Kaden also knew that Alister wouldn't let him win by free falling until the last moment like he'd done last time. If anything, his white-furred friend was even more capable of pulling off a move like that.

Instead, Kaden would have to go a step further and the moment he shot off the ramp, he threw his legs up and dove head first towards the ground, sticking his boots up toward the sky and propelling himself downward with his hoverboots, passing Alister within seconds.

After no more than a second of this, however, Kaden very carefully flipped himself back around, but his momentum was far too great for his boots alone to stop in time. Once again the reckless tan Lombax activated his repulsors, this time cycling them on and off rapidly. The small shockwaves he'd used to blast off the kick pads were used, again and again, each time slowing him down little by little as the force of a shield being formed grabbed the air like a parachute.

A large grin of victory began to split his face as the snow-covered ground approached rapidly with Alister nowhere in sight.

He was just one more pulse away from a safe landing when an intense pain seared into the side of his ribs. With a loud pop and flash of light, Kaden was thrown off balance and sent careening into the snow. 

He landed on his back and had the wind knocked out of him. His side still burned, but the burning sensation quickly turned to one of freezing as the small fire was snuffed out by the snow and cold, as frozen air and ice managed to get into his suit.

His ears were then filled with the roar of jets as Alister landed safely nearby, before rushing over to his friend, concern in his expression. After a quick look over of Kaden's condition, though, he calmed down.

"I'll give you a seven," the white-furred Lombax said after catching his breath. "I liked the dive and acrobatics, but you really need to stick the landing if you want a decent score."

Kaden opened his eyes to stare up at Alister's face as he felt his suit's heaters shut down, "Shouldn't you be more concerned about your injured friend?" he asked as he mentally ran through the circuitry in his suit to try and figure out what had blown.

"Maybe if it wasn't totally your fault," Alister replied. "Was getting blown up worth this little race?"

"I won, so yes," Kaden answered unashamed.

Alister tilted his head to one side and gave a slight, mischievous smile, "You may have hit the ground first, but officially you didn't win," he said before grinning even more self-satisfactorily. "You see, Kaden, due to employees always hurting themselves while racing one another on the course too much, the rules are that the course can only be run by one person at a time. That means Bob only keeps track of the first person to cross the start line until they finish or quit. 'You', technically haven't started your run yet."

Kaden stared blankly at his friend's grinning features for a bit before leaning his head back into the cold snow and staring up at the sky, "But I still beat you," he said eventually.

Alister shrugged indifferently, "Yeah, only after you bulldozed your way through a solid wall of ice and overloaded your suit with the effort. Maybe you should run a few more tests before you start using your little toys?"

"It wasn't the repulsors that malfunctioned," began Kaden as he deduced the cause of the explosion. "My heating pads got overcharged when my suit's power core raised its output. Their resistors must have been overloaded."

Alister tapped his chin thoughtfully, "So, if it was your heating pads that went up, does that make this a lesson about growing a tail and dealing with a little chill, or is it still a lesson about more testing?"

"Why would I go through hours of lab tests for a fur warmer?" retorted Kaden, "You'd have to be an idiot not to wire one right."

Alister grinned happily, "You know you just..."

"Yes. I do realize that I just called myself an idiot," Kaden said as he cut Alister's words off. "Just tell me how bad it looks."

Alister shook his head before taking another look at the palm-sized hole in Kaden's suit, "It's burnt pretty bad," he said as he examined it. "All the fur's gone. But, there's no bleeding and no Nanotech activation, so I think you'll live. It looks like a real stinger though."

"Yes, it is," Kaden assured him with a grimace.

Alister offered Kaden his hand and helped to pull his friend to his feet. Kaden then moved around experimentally to see how much walking would hurt. 

From what Alister could see, it was not inconsequential.

"Let's get you to the med-bay," he told Kaden. "While we're there we can get our regulation check-ups done as well, then we'll come back here later and you can finish ‘your’ run. You'd just better hope the mad doctor isn't in today."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AMDM-303 A.K.A. “Bob” – ‘AMDM for Azimuth Mining Defense Management. He is one of the robots tasked with coordinating the Azimuth Mining defenses of Kreeli Comet. His nickname comes from the fact that 303 kind of looks like BOB if you close the threes.
> 
> The knowing look - that Cerdas and Mr. Azimuth share about finding ‘anything’ in the ice of Kreeli is about another mining company, Tachyon Drilling Industries, finding an old frozen Cragmite egg.
> 
> Canon, of ‘course’ - All of the hoverboot course obstacles were from the A Crack in Time game. For a better understanding of what each one does, you can look them up. They are the ‘accelerator pads’, ‘kick pads’, ‘hoverbolts’ and ‘spring pads’ (hoverbolts and spring pads don’t seem to have an official name anywhere. I think I heard spring pads called jumpers somewhere in the game too, but I can’t remember).
> 
> Gravity - Even though Kreeli is just an asteroid flying through space, it has an atmosphere because the trillium ore that composes a large percentage of its mass makes it super-dense.


	3. Close Encounters

Kaden followed obediently behind a medical nursebot, gingerly favoring his unburned side as he was led through the medical module and into a small room.

The room itself was a typical medical examination suite. There was a firm bed up against the far wall in the corner, there was a set of countertop-cabinets with an embedded sink that was well stocked with medical equipment, there were a few health posters covering the walls, depicting colorful examples of body parts and helpful tips on how not to die, and a single stool which sat solitarily in the room’s center.

“Are you capable of removing your suit?” the nurse-bot asked in an uncaring, metallic voice.

Luckily for Kaden, the protective undershirt that he'd worn for exactly this kind of thing had prevented his armor from fusing with his skin, which was a fairly common occurrence for this kind of accident. 

“Yes,” he replied simply.

The nursebot nodded in acknowledgement, “Then please remove all but your undermost layer of clothing and have a seat. A medical professional will be with you shortly.” She then turned around and walked out of sight.

Kaden took a deep breath and braced himself mentally, before setting about the task of removing his gear.

Bending at the hip caused him more than a small amount of pain, so he tried his best not to do so. It required a little creativity to remove his boots and socks, but the worst part was definitely going to be removing the top half of his jumpsuit.

While the fabric of the suit itself hadn’t fused to him, there was still a risk that some material had gotten into his wound before the heat had cauterized it. More importantly, though, the area was extremely tender and every light brush of fabric, or minor flex of nearby muscles, was a reminder to be more careful about his wiring.

After he'd finally gotten his top off, all that was left was his pants. With extra care not to bend any abdominal muscles, Kaden slowly managed to wriggle the lightly-armored cloth down to his ankles, but it bunched at his feet and became stuck.

Cursing the Lombax race and their ridiculously large foot-to-height ratio, Kaden began a process of shifting between attempts to lift his legs out of his pants, losing his balance, hopping around in his underwear, desperately trying not to fall on his face, and repeating. 

After a long fought battle, Kaden finally managed to pull one foot free of his cloth-shackles, but the effort had caused him to lose balance one final time. Still trying his best not to bend his abdominals, Kaden flapped his arms around madly as he imitated a great, swaying tree that was preparing to fall. 

It had taken several seconds of overly dramatic falling before the young Lombax was finally able to catch himself by aiming for the stool in the center of the room, enabling him to grab onto it before he hit the ground.

The young Lombax grinned to himself proudly, “Nailed it,” he said.

“Hmm, I don’t know about that,” countered a female voice from behind him. “I’d give it a seven at best.”

Kaden flinched in surprise when he heard the words, accidentally flexing the damaged muscles on his side and sending shooting pain through his nerve endings. The young Lombax then arched his back in a reflexive reaction to the pain and accidentally let go of the stool, causing him to fall onto the ground in a heap.

When Kaden opened his eyes, he was face to face with a tall and extremely attractive, white-furred Lombax who was eyeing him with a curious expression. 

“Don't mind me,” she said with a friendly smile. “We can start whenever you’re ready.”

Realizing just how much embarrassment his half-naked self should be feeling at that moment, Kaden’s face turned bright red and he hoped desperately that it wasn’t bright enough to see through his fur.

Kaden then scrambled back to his feet, completely ignoring the shooting pain that the rapid movement caused, “Um, m-my name’s Kaden,” the shaken Lombax stuttered pathetically.

But the attractive Lombax just offered another friendly smile, “I know. I’ll be your doctor, Georgine, but you can just call me Gigi,” the woman said before turning and moving toward the sink, “Have a seat on the stool, Kaden, and let’s have a look at that burn first,” she instructed as she began washing her hands and preparing various pieces of medical equipment before laying them out on the counter.

Kaden gingerly seated himself onto the hard metal disc of the stool and waited patiently for Gigi to finish preparing. As he sat there he had a chance to calm down and properly take in his situation.

While it was not particularly a topic that Kaden liked to focus energy on, the young, adolescent Lombax couldn’t help but make the ‘scientific’ observation that Gigi was an exemplary specimen of the Lombax race.

She was clearly well over Kaden’s age, but beyond that, her exact years would be anyone’s guess. Her attire was a simple set of standard hospital scrubs that she wore underneath a large doctor’s coat. With her back to him, Kaden couldn’t verify it, but from the angle with which he had briefly seen her when he was on the ground, his mind assured him that her scrubs had been slightly too small for her.

He wasn’t sure why, but somewhere along the lines of making these ‘observations’, Kaden’s mind also brought to his attention that he was currently sitting with just a single, small piece of cloth separating him from complete nudity in front of this extremely attractive older woman. That part of his mind also noted that his decision to wear his favorite 'Crimson Commander' underwear today had been a bad one.

Doctor Gigi finished with her preparations by placing a micro-monocle on her right eye before turning back around to face Kaden, "Raise your arm on your injured side please," she instructed. Her tone was commanding but also warm and friendly.

Kaden nodded in reply and took a deep breath. He reminded himself that Doctor Gigi was a medical professional and that he had nothing to be concerned or embarrassed about. Still, his face hadn’t stopped burning and he couldn’t get his heart to slow down, but he did as he was told.

Kaden winced as the arm movement flexed the burnt skin on his ribs. Doctor Gigi bent down and took a close look at the wound from various levels of magnification and Kaden winced again as she prodded a few areas with a metal examination prong.

“I heard that you did this as a result of a wiring malfunction,” Gigi began as she continued to study the damage. “Overloading an experimental suit on the hoverboot track?” she added inquisitively.

Kaden’s ears twitched with embarrassment and his face burned hotter, which he thought was weird since he was more angry than embarrassed at this mistake.

His mouth had become mysteriously dry and he had to swallow hard to try and speak, “I-it was just a miswiring,” he said dismissively. “A simple mistake.”

A sudden, sharp jolt of pain shot up Kaden’s side as Doctor Gigi prodded something just a little too hard. And, if Kaden hadn’t known better, he would have suspected that it had been done on purpose.

Gigi sighed, “I’ve seen enough ‘simple mistakes’ for one lifetime,” she began with a disapproving tone. “If you had been more concerned about your own safety, I’d bet my stripes that you’d never have made such a ‘simple mistake’ in the first place.”

Kaden said nothing.

As the young Lombax tried to sort through the sudden overflow of thoughts and feelings he had, while fighting to outright ignore others, he also began to get a strange feeling of Déjà vu, as if this woman reminded him strongly of someone else he knew, but in an older version.

"Hmm," Doctor Gigi intoned as she pulled back from Kaden’s injury. "Looks pretty superficial, but you've got at least one bit of wire in here. We'll have to pull it out before I can repair it." 

Doctor Gigi then picked up a metal cylinder and used it to spray a cool liquid on Kaden's wound. A moment later he felt the pain in his side numb away. "Hold tight for a moment and we’ll make sure there's nothing else in there."

Doctor Gigi turned back to her workstation and picked up several medical monitoring discs from one of the cabinets, before walking back over to Kaden again. 

She then bent down to place the first one over Kaden’s heart. The young Lombax felt a soft, nanogel coating begin to liquify as it made contact with his skin, before forming a suction cup between the device and his fur. The nurse then put another one under his arm on his uninjured side. It tickled him as she pushed it into place and Kaden had to fight the urge to laugh.

Then, without warning, Gigi stood back up and Kaden found himself staring straight ahead at chest height. He averted his eyes reflexively and she stuck another sensor on his neck without the slightest hint of being aware of the awkward positioning. 

As the doctor continued to check and align the sensors, Kaden kept his breathing shallow and his head turned as he waited for her to finish. But time seemed to tick by incredibly slowly as he desperately tried to focus his mind away from his uncomfortable position.

To help, Kaden began re-deriving the equation to find the final digit of Pi in his mind, but then Gigi leaned forward, just a bit further, as she went to place another sensor on his back.

Kaden then held his breath, too terrified to even let his breath brush against anything, as the already small amount of space between him and ‘Gigi’ was divided in half. With renewed vigor, he refocused his mind even harder on his equations and hoped that she'd finish her work before his air supply ran out. 

He was about halfway through the twenty-third derivation step when the sensors that had been placed on him suddenly sent an electrical shock through his system. 

Caught completely by surprise by the jolt, the young Lombax inhaled deeply through his nostrils and with the air came the smell of Gigi’s fur, along with her perfume and the traces of antiseptic chemicals that had set into it. 

Kaden’s tail curled on its own around the leg of his stool as everything in his mind was wiped clean. He gripped his seat tightly as his conscious and subconscious battled each other for control of his fractured psyche.

Of all the sentient races in the universe, Lombaxes had one of the most acute senses of smell. To them, fragrances and scents played a huge role in their culture's more intimate social interactions. 

If one were to go from not breathing at all to suddenly receiving such an intense stimulation of olfactory nerves, it would be a lot to handle for any Lombax, let alone one of Kaden's age. 

This was the first time he had ever experienced such a powerful dose of a female Lombax's scent.

By the time Kaden regained his senses, Doctor Gigi was sitting with her legs crossed in a chair by the instrument table, with her eyes fixed to a digi-pad in her hand.

Kaden's blood pressure dropped rapidly and he felt a little woozy, but he couldn't figure out the exact reason for it. He shook himself to try and regain full alertness and eventually just assumed that some of the numbing agents on his wound had gotten into his bloodstream.

"Is your burn bothering you?" the doctor asked, snapping Kaden back to reality.

"N-no," he replied earnestly and was surprised to find that his mouth had somehow gone even drier.

"That's good,” Gigi said, nodding with satisfaction, “There’s no internal bleeding or deeper foreign objects, so, if it's ok with you, I'll just finish the physical exam now since I already have the sensors hooked up."

Kaden nodded his consent and Gigi nodded back, before returning her gaze to her digi-pad.

As he waited for the sensors to gather their data, Kaden let his eyes wander around the room. He took a closer look at the instruments Gigi had laid out on the counter as well as the ones he could see through the open cabinet doors. He recognized most of them and tried to guess the functions of the rest. 

When he was bored of that, he then scanned the rest of the room, reading the medical posters as he did and memorizing any of the medical information he didn't already know.

Eventually, Kaden’s eyes found their way, in a completely unintentional manner, to the name tag on the doctor's scrubs. It said 'Gigi' in big, red, italicized letters and had little hearts where the 'i's were dotted. 

Gigi looked up and noticed Kaden staring. She then slowly followed his line of sight and ended up looking straight down at her own chest. 

Kaden felt his heart stop as he realized what it looked like and his face burned with embarrassment. Luckily though, the doctor smiled as she gave him the benefit of the doubt and grabbed her name tag. She studied it for a moment, as if seeing the name for the first time herself, and then raised her eyes to Kaden.

"I just can't seem to control my urge to add little designs to my nametags," she explained cheerfully, "even though the head doctor here has told me a hundred times not to."

Though her words were said with her same cheerful tone, Kaden got the odd feeling that her smile was being forced toward the end of her sentence. He just nodded again and kept his silence. At this point, he was simply afraid to say anything for fear of embarrassing himself further. 

A few minutes later the doctor put down her digi-pad and stood up, "Well, aside for a large patch of burnt skin in your side and maybe a little too many sweets and fats in your diet, you're perfectly healthy," she said as she walked forward and began removing the sensors from Kaden. "There doesn't seem to be any other foreign matter in your sides and your internal NID system is undamaged. Now, just lay down across the bed, on your side, with your wound facing out, and I'll be right over."

Kaden let out a breath of relief to finally be able to move again and stood up. He then tried to move towards the bed in the back, but found that his legs were unusually wobbly and had to move carefully,  _ ‘They ‘must’ have fallen asleep from sitting on the hard stool,’ _ he concluded. 

Once he reached the bed, Kaden laid down across it, as he'd been instructed, with his eyes facing the wall, and waited for the doctor.

Doctor Gigi wheeled her chair over to the bed a second later and adjusted it to the right height for easy access to Kaden’s wound before sitting down on it. She then slid a set of micro-goggles down from where they’d rested on her forehead and adjusted their focus. 

Once again, she sprayed the numbing agent on Kaden’s side before reaching for a laser scalpel from the instrument tray that hovered next to her. 

Once she was confident in the position, she began cutting into his flesh. The hiss and smell of burning scar tissue was Kaden’s only way of knowing what was happening.

"So, how’d you overload your suit?" Gigi asked casually as she worked.

"Er... racing," Kaden answered hesitantly, still mad about his dumb mistake. “On the hoverboot qualification course.”

"Oh?" she said replied curiously. “I thought racing was banned on the qualification course?”

“...it is,” Kaden grumbled.

Doctor Gigi smiled as she took a guess at what had happened, “Who were you racing against?” she asked next.

“A friend of mine,” Kaden answered, “His name’s Alister.”

“Alister Azimuth?” Gigi noted with interest. “What’s he like?”

Kaden shrugged reflexively, but was immediately grabbed and steadied by Gigi, “Sorry,” he apologized before answering. “Um, I don’t know. He’s pretty cool, I guess. It’s not like I can talk quantum physics with him, but he’s a skilled fighter.”

“Hmmm,” was all Doctor Gigi offered in reply.

“It’s funny, actually,” Kaden began again. “He was just telling me about how there’s this ‘Mad Doctor’ in this clinic that I should watch out for. I guess it was lucky that I got you instead.”

“Did he now?” Doctor Gigi noted with an unreadable tone. Her expression soured too, but Kaden couldn’t see it from his current position. Gigi then changed the subject, “So, do you know if he has someone special, or anyone he fancies?”

Kaden tried to turn and face the doctor, this time making the laser scalpel cut where it wasn’t supposed too, but Kaden didn’t notice, “Why do you want to know?” he questioned with a sudden combativeness that he couldn’t quite explain.

Doctor Gigi continued to work unfazed, “He’s an Azimuth, right? His family runs this company, so of course I’d be curious about him,” she insisted.

Kaden lay still as he considered her answer, “He doesn’t have anyone like that,” he admitted eventually. “At least, not that I know of.”

Gigi nodded, though Kaden couldn’t see it, “That’s a shame… how about you then?” she pressed next. “Got anyone ‘special’?”

Again, Kaden tried to turn, but this time he was held in place by the doctor’s firm grip, “Me?” he questioned in bewilderment. “No way! Why would I have anyone like that?! And even if I did... and I don’t... it wouldn’t even matter... I don’t have time to waste on something like that.”

Gigi shook her head with a smile, “A simple ‘no’, would have been fine.”

Kaden’s ears bent inward in embarrassment and he felt his face get warm again.

There was silence for a while before being broken by a clink of metal against metal that rang out as Gigi dropped a bloody piece of wire into a surgeon's bowl, “All clear,” she said with satisfaction, looking over her incision one last time.

Kaden was considering saying something, but before he could, the doctor rubbed a very cold gel on his wound that made him flinch in surprise. 

Moments later, the young Lombax could feel the wound-specific nanites as they penetrated his scar tissue and began the process of replacing it with new skin cells.

In the medical world, Nanotech was used in various forms. The blue kind, which was the most common, was also the most general-purpose blend of them all. Its main purpose was for first aid and it only had very basic 'fix-when-broken' subroutines. 

However, the holonet was full of horror stories about Nanotech messing up and growing extra bones or organs and even starting to build whole new limbs. It was also notoriously bad for shrapnel wounds since it couldn't remove debris, but would still try and heal the wound, leaving foreign material deep within a patient’s body. 

It was always better to get a medical technician with the proper equipment to heal something if it was possible.

After the gelatin of Nanotech had mostly been absorbed into Kaden’s skin, the doctor then rubbed an orange cream over the same spot and covered the whole thing with a large bandage. She then sealed its edges with a time-dissolving adhesive and stood up.

"All done," she declared cheerfully. "The skin should be healed, with no visible marks, in a day or so and then it'll be another day for your fur to grow back. The bandage will fall off when it's done, but don't go picking at it, ok?" 

Kaden sat up and examined the bandage.

He didn’t particularly care what the wound site looked like, he was just happy the pain was gone, “I won’t pick at it,” he promised. “Thanks, doc.”

Gigi gave Kaden one last smile and left him to redress himself. She then walked out the door, down the hall, and back to her office, before sitting down at her desk. 

Once she was comfortable, she began uploading Kaden's medical data from her digi-pad onto to the medical server. 

Just as her computer was starting to process the task, a tan-furred, female Lombax peeked her head around the door.

"Um, Doctor?" she began hesitantly. "C-can I please have my uniform back now?" 

Doctor ‘Gigi’, looked up from her holo-monitor with a hint of a scowl as she eyed the woman, "I'm sorry Georgine, but this uniform appears to have some sort of hideous graffiti all over its name tag. Now we ‘both’ know that I ‘hate’ filthy looking uniforms in my clinic… they’re unprofessional. I can't have anyone waltzing around wearing such an undignified piece of clothing, so I guess I'll just have to burn it. You understand."

The real Gigi's ears drooped sadly and she nodded her acceptance of her fate, knowing that arguing would only make things worse. She carefully turned back down the hallway while trying to keep the medical gown she was wearing from exposing too much. 

As she had been dreading this whole time, while she'd been hiding in the nearby bathroom, she would now have to make a run for the locker rooms on the other side of the clinic. Her only hope was that she could sneak through the area without being seen. 

As she turned the first corner, however, she almost ran right into Alister Azimuth.

Recognizing a member of the Azimuth family immediately, Gigi made a small squeak of despair before bolting down another hallway. Alister watched her leave and shook his head,  _ ’the Mad Doctor strikes again’ _ , he thought. He then walked over to the office and stood in the doorway.

"Why’s Gigi running half-naked through the halls?" he asked informally. 

The Mad Doctor gave him a sideways glance and finished entering in a few things on her computer interface before finally turning to face him, "Workplace disciplinary action," she answered obscurely. 

“Seems like harassment to me,” Alister countered.

The doctor eyed the young Azimuth boy and considered his words, "So, how have you been, Alister?" she asked casually, ignoring his comment.

"How's Kaden?" Alister asked, also ignoring the doctor's question. 

The doctor simply raised an eyebrow at him before leaning back in her chair, "Hmmm,” she began as she considered her answer. Then she smiled, “He’s adorable! And so pure, too. It was refreshing to see someone trying desperately ‘not’ to look at my chest for once. Especially in Gigi’s tiny scrubs.”

"I think I'm going to be sick," Alister replied in disgust, pulling up his hands back as if not wanting to touch something gross. "I meant: how is he physically?"

"Oh… physically," the doctor purred. "Well, he's much more handsome than you always describe him. Strong body, clean and even coat, the part that's not burnt at least. If he looks like this now, mhmm, I can't wait to see what he looks like after he's fully grown." 

Alister's expression had the mixed look of someone both very annoyed and of someone about to vomit, "What are you, like ten times his age?” he questioned irritatedly. “This is why I don’t call anymore! Just... tell me if he's fine or not." 

The doctor's expression hardened and she narrowed her eyes, "He's completely fine," she answered. "But, if you ever want that knot in your tail taken out, then I can prescribe a good smacking. What is it with the Azimuth bloodline? You, your father, and... always so serious." 

The doctor then stopped, recalling the past hour or so she'd spent examining and fixing Kaden, "Actually, have I ever told you how your father and I met?"

"No thanks, Mom," Alister said with a shake of the head. "I think I've had enough emotional trauma for one day." 

He then immediately turned to leave.

“You know,” Doctor Azimuth began, “It’d be nice to see my son outside of a medical emergency.”

“I’ll check my schedule,” Alister replied before promptly making his way down the hall.

Mrs. Azimuth glared darkly at the empty doorway, "I’m having meatloaf for dinner this weekend," she called after her son.

A few seconds later, Alister’s head slowly poked back around the doorway with a suspicious look on his face, “What kind of meatloaf?”

Alister’s mother grinned smugly, “The meaty kind.”

_ ‘Curses!’ _ Alister thought.  _ ‘That’s my favorite kind.’  _

“I ‘guess’ I don’t have anything to do this weekend,” the young Lombax admitted, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

“Bring Kaden,” his mother ordered. “I’d like to meet him formally this time.”

At this Alister immediately became defensive, “No way. That’s ‘not’ happening.”

Mrs. Azimuth glared at her son, but then glanced down at her digi-pad and a mischievous smile formed on her lips, “You know, there was a small anomaly on Kaden’s bioscan. I’m sure it’s nothing, just a glitch in the scanner’s feedback, but just to be sure, I might have to order a full examination. We’d be all alone together for hours, who knows what we’d talk about to pass the time.”

“You’re a monster,” Alister declared in horror.

“No, I’m your mother,” Doctor Azimuth shot back.

“Same difference,” Alister replied, before he turned once more to leave.

“Dinner’s at six,” his mother informed him.

Alister merely raised his arm in acknowledgment, before he disappeared from the doorway. Mrs. Azimuth shook her head, ’ _ Just like his father,’  _ she thought as she turned back to her holo-monitor. A moment later she smiled to herself.

* * *

Kaden and Alister were inside one of the staging areas of the security module they were staying in and were gearing up for their first asteroid patrol.

A few kilometers from the outpost that they would soon be teleported to was an abandoned mining pit. The usual protocol for when mining crews were about to abandon a mining site was to blow the tunnel entrances to prevent anyone from entering them and either getting hurt or lost.

However, the site that they were going to hadn't been officially abandoned yet because it still had plenty of Trillium in it. Instead, the site lay unused because the drilling and harvesting equipment that had originally dug it had all been reassigned to a newly discovered vein of trillium that was several times richer. 

Now Kaden and Alister would have to sweep the extensive tunnel system in order to verify that no Agorian forces had taken up residence during or after their recent assault.

As usual, Alister was wearing his personal suit of Lombax combat armor for this mission. 

Kaden, however, couldn't use his suit due to the damage it had sustained yesterday and the lack of time he’d had for repairs. 

The suit itself was only minorly damaged and would have been fine for protection with just a simple patch job, but Kaden knew that he had wired at least one thing wrong and he wouldn't be satisfied with it until he was sure there were no other flaws. 

Besides Kaden just being ‘minorly’ obsessed with perfection, though, the young Lombax was also worried about several systems in his suit that very well could kill him and anyone nearby if they malfunctioned and he decided not to risk it.

He was instead given permission to use a suit from the company’s armory and, in true Kaden style, he'd definitely found an interesting one. 

With no NID uplink module and an after-design Nanotech attachment, Kaden stood up in his very own, green painted suit of G-83 medium combat armor. 

While searching through the armory's auxiliary storage facility, the young Lombax had stumbled upon the hauntingly familiar artifact of war. It was covered in dust and shoved in the back corner of the room and Kaden knew at once that he needed to try it.

Alister, who was suiting up next to Kaden, found himself once again astonished by his friend's behavior. 

Kaden had likely pulled the relic suit of armor from a trash bin someone had forgotten to empty. And, even after finding it, he still had to do a full pressure test just to make sure the seals hadn't rotted away with age. 

Despite Alister's attempts to change his mind, he refused to simply use a newer one. He probably could have fixed his own suit in the time it took him to prepare this one. He had even needed to replace its gauntlets with his own suit’s, since the G-83 gauntlets lacked any of the holo-screens needed to monitor their scanning equipment.

Kaden, on the other hand, was quite happy with his choice. A primary reason for deciding to wear the G-83 suit of armor was the hope that he'd find out some weakness or strategic understanding that could give him the advantage in his next battle with Kor.

He did learn a lot about it too. Just by putting it on he was pleasantly surprised to find that a great deal of care and consideration had been put into the suit’s tail compartment. Extra space had been allotted around the armor's waist and Kaden was able to wrap his tail around himself like a belt. The suit's manual even suggested to begin wrapping his tail from the opposite side of his dominant hand.

Kaden tried both ways and found that it was more comfortable the way the manual had suggested, which was interesting since they logically should have felt the same. He was even beginning to like the suit... that was, at least, until he put the helmet on.

Found alongside the suit was an identical helmet to Kor's, aside from the green color, but no matter how much ingenuity the Lombax engineers had when they made the G-83 series, it was clear that they couldn't figure out a comfortable way to protect the wearer's ears. The end result was the decision to have them squeezed flat against the wearer’s skull and, in order to make the helmet snug, that meant a lot of pressure on the ears. This was extremely uncomfortable.

The helmet also came with two long pads that Kaden was supposed to wear between his ears and his skull. The pads were attached to microphones on the outside of the helmet and would vibrate to allow Kaden to hear both outside noises and his radio. He had also found, to his detriment, that without them it was impossible to hear anything. 

Luckily, however, he had been able to jury-rig a connection to his NID, so he could reroute everything his helmet heard straight into his brain without the extremely uncomfortable speaker-pads.

When he was fully dressed, he stood up and turned to Alister, "How do I look?" he asked as his voice was filtered through the helmet. Alister winced at his words.

"The green makes you look different, but your voice sounds just like Kor's. It's actually disconcerting," Alister answered "Anyway, this is your last chance to change your mind," he offered one last time as he stood in the doorway to the teleporter room.

"Not a chance," replied Kaden defiantly. 

The young Lombax was looking forward to getting a feel for Kor's armor. Like the old saying goes: 'If you want to get to know someone, hoverboot a Kilometer in their combat armor'.

They both walked onto the teleporter pad in the next room. 

“Prepare for tele-transit to outpost 34T-4,” came Bob's voice over their communicators.

Seconds later, the room filled with blue light and, with a blinding flash, was replaced by another room that led to an airlock.

The two Lombaxes walked forward until they reached the door. Alister hit the airlock control and the hiss of gases escaping filled the room as it depressurized. 

The doors slid open and they both stepped out into the comet's icy atmosphere. Kaden walked out with caution as he tested his armor and made sure that all the systems in it were working properly.

"How's it holding up?" asked Alister as he watched Kaden move around in the snow.

Kaden walked forward and spun around a few times. He then turned back to Alister and gave him a thumbs up, before activating his hoverboots in a roar of jets. A moment later Kaden landed flat on his back and blasted off into the distance, leaving a wake of flying snow as he did.

Alister ignited his hoverboots and sped after him on his own twin jets of fire. Kaden was doing something weird again, but Alister had long since given up trying to understand his friend's actions or thoughts. He just had to make sure the younger Lombax didn't do anything ‘too’ permanently damaging, or Sorana would have both their tails.

The winds were fairly strong and the flurries of snow were making it harder to see. Alister followed Kaden's ice trail over and down the edge of a steep crater, all the way to pair of wriggling, green armored legs jutting from a snowdrift.

"You alive in there?" Alister asked through the helmet comm. system.

He then checked his helmet’s chronometer. He'd managed to get Bob to add about an hour to their expected return time. Some of it was in case they decided to have a race and took a detour, but most of it was in expectation of Kaden's shenanigans.

"Yeah, but I could use a little help if you don't mind," was Kaden's reply through the comm. Alister headed down and grabbed hold of both of Kaden's ankles before pulling him out with one strong heave. He then helped his friend to his feet and helped him brush the snow off his armor.

"Now come on," Alister said. "Waste time after we've finished the mission and we’re sure we have some to spare." 

Kaden brushed the last of the ice off his armor and faced Alister. He then held his arms out, gesturing in an offer for him to go first and Alister accepted it by igniting his boots again and scaling the crater wall. 

Kaden activated his boots as well and followed, "And it wasn't wasted time," he said through the comm. after they'd gotten into a cruising speed.

"Oh?" replied Alister. "Did you discover a new vein of trillium under the snow? Or perhaps you made friends with that pile of ice since you two seemed to be so close?"

"No, I couldn't find any trillium and I found the snow's company to be rather unpleasant, its personality was a bit too cold,” Kaden answered mockingly. “I did, however, learn that this armor is pretty top-heavy. I didn't fall in the snow on purpose, by the way. I also learned that the vision through this helmet from above is pretty limited. I didn't even see that crater was there until I was too close to stop."

Alister glanced over at the young Lombax who was hoverbooting next to him. He had to admit that they were interesting pieces of information and he was also sure that Kaden would put it to use somehow. He smiled to himself, this was the reason he never tried to understand Kaden's actions, he simply trusted in them.

* * *

Kaden and Alister reached the mining site far ahead of schedule. The main reason for this being that Kaden had decided to heed Alister's request and not perform any more 'tests' on his new armor until after the mine was officially cleared.

The two of them stood at the edge of a gigantic crater that sloped down steeply before suddenly leveling off at the floor where standby equipment was usually stationed. Artificial ledges were scattered around its walls, marked by the metallic structures that stabilized the entrances to the large mining tunnels made by the trillium harvesters that mined them.

A trillium harvester was a hulking piece of machinery that could dig through almost anything. After a geo-scan detects and pinpoints a vein of trillium ore, the trillium harvesters would map a path from the crater and just start digging towards it. It would simultaneously dig and sift through the dirt for ore while hundreds of mining drones followed behind in order to carry out the waste material. When the harvesters had a full storage bay of ore they would come back out and carry it to the nearest drop-off point.

The original plan was for Kaden and Alister to set up relays and use survey drones to scan the inside of the crater and the immediate area. If there was no sign of activity then they could be confident that there was nothing inside the tunnels themselves, but would still set automated reconnaissance drones to scan the tunnels.

After that, they would go on to two other, smaller craters marked in the nearby area and repeat the process there.

However, they knew that these plans would be thrown out the window as they both looked down at the Agorian spaceship sitting on the crater floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason why the drones don’t remove the trillium ore from the trillium harvesters like they do with the waste material is that it makes it too easy for unsavory miners to reprogram a few drones and skim trillium off the top of their hauls for later, illegal sale.


	4. I know Where This is Going

The type of ship that was currently lying idle on the floor of the mining site was called a Talon. It was a type of fighter-class ship used by the Agorians. 

Simple in design and easily mass produced, it represented the vast majority of the Agorian race's space power. Their civilization lacked both the knowledge and desire to produce many powerful capital ships or armadas. Besides, they preferred to fight on the ground and up close anyway.

Alister followed protocol and reported the sighting to the Security Division HQ and Kaden could hear the transmission through his own comm. link, "Defense Command, this is surface patrol Alpha Kilo, emergency code one-one-eight."

"Emergency code acknowledged, Alpha Kilo," Bob's robotic voice answered through the comm., "state your situation."

"Location: Mining site four-eight-Zulu. One foreign vessel on site, fighter-class, Agorian design... a Talon." Alister explained.

"Do you have confirmation on enemy personnel?" Bob asked next.

Alister took one last look at the crater, "Negative on confirmed personnel, zero movement and no signs of perimeter defenses."

"Support team is en route,” Bob informed them. “Be advised that recently salvaged Agorian fighters contained at least three Agorian combatants on average."

"Received command, proceeding with protocol, out," Alister concluded, finishing the transmission before turning to Kaden, "Guess the extra security over the Agorians was justified."

"Seems like it," Kaden agreed. It was now looking like he would get his chance to field test one of his new weapons. He flexed the fingers of his gauntlets in anticipation. He then glanced back at Alister who was also looking excited, "Now be honest, how badly were you hoping that Agorians were here?"

"Are you kidding?" Alister began with a smile as he readied his Combuster. "I've been wishing for the opportunity to use an emergency code since my first patrol on Kreeli. I almost got to once, too. I picked up an unidentified heat signature that matched a pair of hoverboots, but it ended up just being some kid who'd gone exploring without his daddy's permission." 

There was a pause while Kaden made a connection in his head and was about to say something when Alister cut him off, "Ok, you take the right side and I'll take the left. We'll sweep down and start sending survey drones into the mine shafts, but I'm going to focus on scouting out the ship first."

Kaden nodded his understanding as he and Alister focused their minds and pushed away all thoughts that didn't pertain to their mission. It was rare, but the two of them knew that this was real and that it was time to be serious… for once.

According to the security force protocol on Kreeli for this kind of situation, the scout team, Kaden and Alister, were to gather as much intelligence as possible before the assault team arrived. Since they hadn't spotted any enemy units yet, it was their job to find them.

Kaden walked along the right side of the crater, to a point where the descending slope was less steep. After a quick calculation, the tan Lombax leapt forward and hit the icy ground before sliding down the remainder of the slope. The frozen winds drowned out most sound, but neither he nor Alister used their hoverboots for fear that it would alert any hiding Agorians.

About halfway down the wall, Kaden dug in his heels and came to a stop next to a mining tunnel entrance. This hole in the crater wall was easily five meters high and almost twice that in width, the same size as a trillium harvester with all its harvesting drills spread open.

Intricate ice crystals blanketed the ceiling, the walls, and, most importantly, the floor. Their presence made it obvious that either no one had disturbed this tunnel in a long time, or someone was being especially careful not to show their presence.

Judging by the haphazardly parked Talon fighter that was blatantly out in the open, plus the fact they were most likely dealing with Agorians, Kaden felt confident that it was former.

Still, the tan Lombax followed protocol. Pulling a small orb from his armor, he then tossed the survey drone into the cave. It stopped in mid-air as its anti-grav motor activated. A few seconds later it zipped off down the tunnel until it disappeared from view. 

A moment later Kaden received its scan data. No life signs were detected yet, but the tunnels were extensive, so he placed it on autopilot and told it to alert him if it discovered anything.

Satisfied with his work, he continued to the next few tunnels and repeated the procedure. Each entrance was similarly undisturbed and after the third one, the task had become monotonous.

It wasn't until the eighth tunnel that Kaden finally found his first evidence of trespass. 

The tunnel mouth was covered in footprints and the delicate ice crystals had been trampled and shattered without care. Kaden repeated the process of deploying a drone, but this time used one of his own ‘special’ drones for this tunnel.

"Kaden, how's it looking on your end so far?" Alister asked over the comm. link.

"I've been to most of the tunnels, but I only found one that I think they've been to," Kaden replied, "How about you?"

"Nothing much here either," Alister answered. "I'm at the ship now. There's nobody aboard and it's completely iced over. I'd say it's been idle for at least a few days. There are footprints all around, but the only trail leading off is towards you. I'd say at least four, maybe five Agorians. No signs of Thrashers, though."

Thrashers were a type of extremely cheap attack robot. They were made from bits of scrap metal and tended to use that fact as camouflage. They'd often simply lie on the ground appearing to be trash until an unsuspecting enemy showed up. 

They were manufactured by a junk obsessed race called the Vulards and were usually given to the Agorians by the cargo bay-full as peace offerings, despite Agorians rarely wanting to do anything the ‘peaceful’ way.

"I'm scanning the tunnel now," Kaden said. "Let's check the last few tunnels and by then my drone should have found them if they're in there." 

There was a pause before Alister responded, "Forget it. These tracks obviously only lead to the tunnel you're at. Let's just go take them down before the assault team gets here," he said. It was clear that he wanted a crack at the Agorians before the Assault team showed up and inevitably sidelined the two of them.

"Isn't that against protocol?" Kaden asked in mock concern.

"Ha, the day I need you to tell me to follow the rules is the day a few dimwitted Agorians beat two Nova Academy warriors. Besides, we still haven't found the enemy yet. We're just following protocol by 'looking for them'. If they happen to spot us in the narrow tunnels then we'll just have to follow protocol and defend ourselves."

"Well I'm not going to argue with that logic,” Kaden conceded without resistance. It wasn't like he wasn't thinking the same thing anyway. "Let's go."

Once Alister arrived at the tunnel entrance with Kaden, the two Lombaxes activated the illuminators on their suits and headed in. 

Alister was cautious and held his Combuster at the ready. Kaden, on the other hand, was the opposite. He trusted his surveyor to alert him of any unseen danger and walked with his eyes mostly on his gauntlet's holo-screen, checking the readings from his drone.

"That's weird," Kaden said in surprise after a few minutes of walking.

"What is?" asked Alister. 

Kaden fiddled with his gauntlet controls a moment, "The drone's image recognition software detected an enemy presence, but it didn't alert me. If I hadn't been watching the data transmission, I'd never have known," he explained.

"So what does that mean? Software glitch?" wondered Alister.

Kaden hoped not. He wrote the program the drone was using himself. If there was a glitch, it would be his fault and strike two for his trip to Kreeli. Before getting angry with himself, though, he double checked the readings and soon found the source of the problem.

"It didn't detect any heat signatures or life signs," Kaden said with mild surprise.

"Does that mean they're dead?" Alister asked with a hint of disappointment.

"We're going to have to find out to be sure," Kaden said, before he hurried off down the tunnel with Alister following close behind.

* * *

It only took the duo a few minutes to arrive at the spot the drone had discovered and it took only a few seconds for them to take it in. 

Five Agorians, hulking creatures three times as tall as a fully grown Lombax, with large arms and torsos, but unusually scrawny legs, lay about the tunnel, covered in a layer of ice.

Kaden began inspecting the nearest one. Each of its oversized arms ended in wrists that were strapped to long metal blades clearly designed for combat. Two more of the five carried similar armaments while the last two seemed to have some kind of cannon fixed to the end of their arms.

"Look at this," Alister beckoned while inspecting the farthest Agoriansicle. Kaden looked up and went to see what Alister was talking about.

Alister was examining a simple wooden crate, like the one Mercatus had stored bolts in. This particular crate, however, was full of unrefined trillium ore. Kaden turned to Alister who then turned his illuminator towards the wall. They both recognized the evidence of hand prospecting on the tunnel wall and could clearly also see the silver reflection of an ore vein.

"Well, it looks like they came for the trillium after all," said Alister.

"I guess," Kaden replied somewhat unconvinced, "but if they wanted trillium they should have attacked an outgoing cargo vessel with tons of refined stock. What possible reason could they have to sneak onto Kreeli and scrape out a single crate load of ore?"

"Do Agorians need a reason to do anything?" Alister questioned with a shake of his head. "All they do is attack stuff and take stuff. I doubt there is much more to their thought process than that."

Kaden still wasn't convinced that there was nothing else to it, but at the moment he was more concerned about why the Agorians were all lying here dead. 

He turned his light to the floor and noticed scorch marks across it. Intrigued, he followed the marks to one of the Agorians' arm mounted weapons. It was then that he noticed that the other Agorians were all positioned around the scorch marks, sitting frozen like it were a campfire. 

Kaden almost laughed as he realized what had occurred, "Get this!" he exclaimed to Alister. His friend turned curiously to see what he was making such a fuss about. "They must have come in here, scraped out some trillium, and got cold. Then, they all huddle around this guy," Kaden pointed to Agorian the scorch marks led to, "and he turned on his flamethrower to warm everyone up!"

"Ok," Alister said as he scratched his head in confusion, "but why is that relevant?"

"None of them are wearing masks!” Kaden exclaimed, as if that was the answer to Alister’s question. However, seeing that it wasn’t enough, he elaborated further, “Even if they don't like to use their brains, they still need to breathe oxygen. The atmosphere on Kreeli is thin enough as it is, but add that to being deep underground, plus someone starting a fire and you've got yourself the recipe for some asphyxiated Agorians."

Alister leaned down to look closer at one of the Agorians again, "How 'bout that." he said in amazement. He noticed that the brute looked almost peaceful. "Guess they really are as dumb as everyone says." 

He held up his Omni-wrench and tapped it a few times on the Agorian's frozen head for emphasis.

The tapping caused cracks to run a short way down the ice that coated the Agorian's head from where Alister had tapped it. To Alister surprise, the cracks then continued further, slowly snaking their way down the creature’s neck... then to its torso, and even over its arms. Alister took a step back as he started to get a bad feeling.

With the sound of shattering glass, the frozen Agorian burst out of his crystal shell, roaring loudly, and taking a swinging its long, arm-mounted blade at Alister with the same motion. 

Alister expertly dodged the attack by diving for the tunnel floor and rolling to safety. The disoriented Agorian then turned its wild slashes toward Kaden, who also saw it coming and quickly moved out of the way of the first attack. He then parried another strike with his OmniWrench, before backing up towards Alister, who had pulled his Combuster back out.

"I thought you said they were dead?!" the white-furred Lombax yelled as he drew a bead on the Agorian.

"No,” Kaden retaliated. “I just said they were asphyxiated and had no heat signatures." 

The tunnel was decently sized, but Kaden wasn't sure if it was enough to safely use his new weapon. 

Meanwhile, Alister blasted away at the angry behemoth with his weapon. A dozen Combuster rounds left holes and streaks of melted flesh in the Agorian, but the roaring creature seemed to be unaware of the damage. 

When it was clear that it could not lay a blade on either of the nimble Lombaxes, however, the Agorian turned its attention to its nearest frozen comrades. With a hard jab of its elbow, cracks spider-webbed across the frozen statue’s features.

The second Agorian burst out of the ice just like the first one and immediately turned its arm cannon towards the two Lombaxes. For a species that didn't have a lot of brainpower, Kaden had to give them credit for just how quickly they could react after waking up from a frozen state. 

A soft boom echoed around the tunnel and a large, metal orb shot out of the Agorian's arm cannon, arcing its way toward Kaden and Alister. It landed with a thud just in front of them.

At first, it looked like the shot had been a dud, but an ominous beeping began to radiate from orb and Kaden immediately reached for it with his wrench. 

With a slight squeeze of the handle, the two fingers of the wrench tightened around the bomb, allowing Kaden lob it back to where it came from. It hit its owner in the chest and exploded in a flash of light that shook the tunnel, causing bits of rock and dirt to fall. Kaden and Alister ducked further back into the cave to avoid the blast or possible cave in.

When the dust settled, they could clearly see four Agorians now risen from their icy slumber. The one that had taken the explosion to the face was lying on the ground motionless.

"How are none of them dead after being frozen solid?" Alister demanded as he caught his breath and lined up another shot.

"They're just walking bags of muscle and bone!" Kaden answered. "Not a lot of brittle parts on them."

Any further talk was cut off by a deep bellow from what looked like the largest Agorian, "Take the prize back to the ship,” it ordered in a deep guttural voice as it waved its arm cannon, “I'll make these fur balls pay for freezing us!" 

The three other Agorians with blade weapons nodded reluctantly before obediently picking up the crate and their gear.

The Agorian who had spoken stepped forward and pounded its cannon arm against its chest in a challenge to its foes. Alister accepted the challenge and unleashed a barrage of Combuster rounds, but the Agorian raised its other arm up in front of it and a yellow energy shield flashed into life. The Combuster’s shots bounced harmlessly off of the shield and the Agorian laughed at the pathetic attempt. 

Once the last shot was deflected, the creature then lowered its shield and raised its arm cannon before unleashing a torrent of flame that filled the gap between the two combatants. 

Seeing this, Kaden held up an open palm and a white energy barrier expanded from the back of his gauntlet to cover him and Alister. The fire splashed against the shield and Alister could feel the heat on his fur.

When there was a break in the fire's onslaught, Alister moved out from behind Kaden’s shield to unleash another salvo of Combuster rounds, but yet again the Agorian stayed safe behind his own shield. 

The two enemies found themselves in a stalemate, but Kaden and Alister could still see the other three Agorians making their way further down the tunnel. Alister tried to fire at them, but, the few shots that weren't blocked by the first Agorian’s shield and managed to hit their mark, didn't seem to even faze the Agorians they hit. Then, another blast of flames was unleashed by the first Agorian, driving Alister behind cover once more.

Seeing the deadlock and knowing that the other Agorians were about to escape, Kaden made a decision. With a deep breath, the young Lombax held out his free hand and gave his gauntlet a mental command.

"You're going to use that in here?" Alister asked with concern when he realized what Kaden was about to do.

"Unless you have a better idea," he replied as a hum began to fill the air. 

Kaden knew he would have to make the blast as small as possible, but there was a minimum limit when it came to energy-positive nuclear reactions. "Cover your ears," he added.

Ionized air sparked around his arm as the magnetic containment field in his gauntlet's fingers increased in strength. A small fusion reaction, just like the ones in his fusion cells, was then ignited at the heart of the field. 

The reaction quickly grew to a self-sustaining level and was fast approaching the critical point where his magnetic field could no longer contain it. 

With perfect timing, the torrent of flame stopped again, allowing Kaden to lower his shield and hold out his arm to line up a shot. In an instant, he mentally redirected all of his gauntlet's energy to the magnets in his palm, while simultaneously cutting it to his fingers. 

With one vector of space suddenly free from resistance, the miniature sun erupted from Kaden’s hand and blasted forward, leaving behind a stream of searing light that zipped right past the shielded Agorian and right into the back of one of his fleeing companions.

A blinding flash forced Alister to look away, but Kaden's G-83 eye shields automatically filtered out the intense rays. The heat of the blast vaporized the three fleeing Agorians in an instant and the shockwave sent the shield-wielding one sprawling to the ground. 

The sound of the blast rang painfully loud in Alister’s sensitive Lombax ears, though Kaden’s helmet filtered the sound for him. 

As the explosions echo gradually began to fade, it was replaced by heavy, growing rumbling.

The ground shook and large chunks of rock started dislodging from the ceiling and falling to the floor. The rumbling intensified and both Lombaxes were knocked to the ground as the tunnel shook violently. They were forced to crawl away on hands and knees as fast as they could, deeper into the tunnel, to escape the cave in.

A few seconds later the rumbling subsided. 

After a moment to be sure that the ground had finished moving, both Kaden and Alister were able to get shakily back up to their feet.

They dusted themselves off and checked for damage, both seemed fine. Then they turned to look back down the tunnel, towards the exit. Their illuminators followed their eyes and reflected off the newly formed wall of rock and the half-buried Agorian body that blocked their path out.

“That’s not good,” noted Kaden, stating the obvious.

Alister attempted to get a transmission signal through the cave, but the interference was strong. He tried to boost his signal while Kaden walked over to the rock wall.

The tan Lombax kneeled down to the dead Agorian and looked it over before removing something from the body and holding it up to the light to examine it better. It was a PDA, an old form of data manipulation and storage that was used before digi-pads. 

At last, Alister made a contact with Bob, but the transmission was weak and choppy. He simply kept repeating the words 'cave-in' and 'trapped' until Bob acknowledged it with a garbled ‘help’, ‘on’, and ‘way’.

"Well," began Alister somberly, "I guess we’d better make ourselves comfortable."

* * *

"I spy, something that is green," Alister said again.

"Me," Kaden sighed as he looked up from his gauntlet’s interface again. "Please stop this. There are only four things in here: you, me, the Agorian, and that pile of rocks."

The two Lombaxes had been trapped for nearly an hour now. Kaden had been passing the time by decrypting the data on PDA he'd found. It wasn't particularly hard to hack the device, but the real challenge was sorting through the pile of junk data on it. The PDA’s memory was mostly just filled with selfie photos and several text-only conversations with females, and one male, all claiming that the PDA's owner was cheating on them. The timestamps on many of them overlapped each other. 

Alister, on the other hand, was going through a cycle of actions to handle his boredom and restlessness. First, he’d try sitting quietly, letting his mind wander and meditating. After about thirty seconds of that, he would then start pacing around in frustration, possibly thinking of it as some kind of exercise. Next, he would start counting the loose rocks that made up the tunnel blockade, only to get frustrated at having counted one twice. Finally, when all else failed, he would start annoying Kaden to pass the time.

"Oh, well I guess if you're bored with that game we could always just go home… but wait. No, we can't, because we're trapped in this cave!" Alister repeated angrily.

"Well if ‘you’ hadn't freed the first one by whacking it on the head, they wouldn't have woken up in the first place," Kaden shot back.

"What was that?” Alister asked, pretending to have been unable to hear Kaden. “I couldn't hear you over the ringing in my ears from the ‘nuke’ you set off and the cave in that it caused."

Kaden grumbled, "The whole reason we're even down here was because you wanted to take on the big bad Agorians and get all the glory for it."

"I didn't hear much resistance out of you,” Alister pointed out. “You'd already agreed to it before I even made it to the tunnel's entrance."

"I'm sorry, what was that?” Kaden replied, also pretending like he hadn’t heard Alister. “I stopped listening to do a score count of the firefight. Out of the five enemies ‘you’ woke up, I believe I took down, let's see... all five, while you have a grand total of zero. Though, you did manage to scratch one of them a few times. Congratulations."

"Ouch, I'd say that was a good kick in the tail,” admitted Alister, “but since I've been trapped in this frozen cave for an hour, my tail seems to have gone numb!"

"Then there is some good news,” Kaden offered. “Since my armor is full-vacuum rated, I don't feel anything of the cold. I'm starting to like the G-83 series more and more."

"Then maybe I should come over there and take…." Halfway through Alister's sentence, a low rumble could be heard through the tunnel walls.

Concerned that it might be another cave in, Alister and Kaden backed up several meters and prepared to book it deeper into the tunnel.

As they both listened carefully to the sound, it began to grow louder and louder. After a minute, or so, the ground began to vibrate. It was then that they realized what the sound was and they both breathed a sigh of relief. A second later, a large metal drill, wreathed in plasma, burst from the center of the rock heap that had been blocking their path. 

Having struck air, the sound of the drill’s engine died and the massive metal cone’s plasmatic skin dissipated, causing the spinning drill to slowly grind to a halt.

The drilling vehicle then drove forward a few feet, before veering off to the side and coming to rest beside the wall. In its wake, Kaden and Alister could see a long, smoking tube of smooth rock that had quickly cooled and solidified after being liquefied by the drill head.

A Lombax in researcher’s armor walked up to Kaden and Alister after they had finished parking the driller. 

Researcher’s armor was like standard Lombax armor, except that it was designed to do combat against harsh elements rather than enemies. It also had no standard weapon attachments. Instead, it supported a wider variety of scanners, detection equipment, and power supplies. Kaden's personal suit had once been a suit of research armor, though, after years of modification, it was now more aptly ranked among the light combat armor class.

"So… who collapsed the tunnel?" Kaden's father asked through his helmet’s speakers. He then slid his visor and revealed an accusing expression. Kaden reluctantly raised his hand. "Excellent!" his father exclaimed with a smile. "I'm so proud of you right now."

Kaden and Alister were both very confused by the reaction. Kaden was more surprised, while Alister was more irritated.

It was latter who responded first, "Why would you be proud of your son for collapsing a mining tunnel and trapping two people inside?"

"Because,” Cerdas began with a grin, “I bet your father a hundred bolts that it was ‘my’ son that did it. Oh, I'm going to enjoy collecting it too. He was so sure that it was his son that had caused it, but I knew better!" he explained triumphantly. "Do everything big, even if it's screwing up, right son?"

Kaden scowled at his father, but no one could see it.

Without waiting for a reply, Cerdas then held up his hands and gestured for the two boys to follow him back toward the driller.

"Let's go home," he said happily, unable to hide the sounds of relief in his voice this time.

* * *

Alister and Kaden had just finished their off-duty gym workouts and were heading back to their rooms to get changed before chow time.

Alister had noticed that Kaden was a little more off than usual during their exercises and was a little concerned. Most people wouldn't have noticed, since Kaden was always zoning out and thinking as if his consciousness was in another dimension, but Alister could tell that his friend's mind was currently stuck on something big. 

He had tried to ask about it, but Kaden brushed it off several times. Alister was even starting to get a little irritated about it. 

Finally, after the two of them sat down with their food in the chow hall, as he watched Kaden absentmindedly cut-up a napkin on his tray and eat it, he’d had enough.

"That's it," Alister declared, once he and Kaden had made it back to their shared room. "Either you tell me what you're planning or I'll tell your dad what you're up to." 

Kaden turned to give Alister a curious look, "I told you, I'm not up to anything and even if I was, how are you going to tell on me if you don’t know what it is?"

"It doesn't matter," Alister said with a shrug. "I'll just tell him you're up to something. It's true most of the time and he'll be on alert. If you're planning anything big then he'll at least get in your way."

Kaden had to admit that Alister's logic was sound and he nodded in acknowledgment. After a quick check to make sure that the door was shut, Kaden produced the PDA he'd pulled from the dead Agorian in the caves.

"Listen to this," he whispered excitedly before typing a command into the device.

An audio-only message began to play from the device. It seemed to be a commercial with epic music in the background, a sports announcer yelling excitedly, and an Agorian's voice doing a background chant in between:

_ "It's time for carnage! It's time for mayhem! It's time for..." _

_ "Battleplex, Battleplex, Battleplex..." _

_ "Witness the ultimate Galactic Arena. No rules. No helmets. No surrender. Just the galaxy's greatest competitors, battling to the death!" _

_ "Battleplex, Battleplex, Battleplex..." _

_ "A place where honor is bountiful, glory is coveted, and testosterone is pumped through the vents like it's going out of style!" _

_ "Battleplex, Battleplex, Battleplex..." _

_ "New gladiators welcome! We'll see you there, at the..." _

_ "Battleplex, Battleplex, Battleplex..." _

The recording stopped and Alister looked up from the device to see the grinning expression on Kaden's face. 

Everything was now clear to him.

"Ohhhh no. I know where this is going," the white-furred Lombax said. "There is ‘no’ way we're doing that." Kaden simply stared, expression unchanged, at his friend without a word. "How are you even going to get there? It's not like we can hoverboot over."

"We take a transport," Kaden answered simply. "I've done it before."

Alister rolled his eyes as he remembered. Kaden had been to Kreeli several times before with his father and one of those times he'd managed to steal a fighter from the hangar bays, fly it around Kreeli star space, and return it undetected. 

Kaden had managed to hack everything necessary to get away with it, but he had forgotten about the internal flight log computer. After an annual compiling of systems’ data, an inconsistency was found. Alister remembered that his father had been very displeased when they couldn’t figure out who had done it.

"Ever since your little joyride last year, all the ships in the hangar have a ton of new security features. Even you couldn't get through them all without getting caught." 

Kaden nodded his reluctant agreement, but his expression didn't falter, "Then we take a harvester," he said confidently. "They're classified as mining equipment so they're not stored in the hangars. They're just barely capable of intergalactic travel, but still capable." 

Alister continued to shake his head, "How are you going to enter the tournament?" He demanded as he held up the PDA. "This says all non-Agorians require valid intergalactic identification." 

Again Kaden's expression remained unwavering, "I'll use my dad's I.D. We look exactly alike. I doubt any species besides the Markazians are even familiar enough with Lombaxes to spot the difference and I really doubt some brain-dead Agorian is going to get suspicious."

Alister was beginning to get worried, Kaden’s plan was starting sound plausible, "How are you going to get the I.D. without your father finding out?” he pressed desperately. “Cerdas will need that card to access the facilities in the R&D Division." 

This time Kaden's smile grew even wider, "This Wednesday the mess hall is serving Suavis fruit pie for dessert, dad’s favorite. I overhear my mom lecturing him over the holo-net all the time for overeating and having to call in sick due to stomach pains and nausea every time it’s served. If we steal his I.D. during dinner, he'll be taken straight to the med-bay after stuffing himself and won't need to use it until Friday morning. We can be back by then." 

Alister kept shaking his head and re-reading the PDA, looking for any crack in his plan, "Why do you even want to go?" he asked in a last ditch effort to dissuade his friend. "I mean, besides your usual death wish, what would be the point of entering a gladiator battle? It's not like you desperately need the bolts." 

Kaden turned around and went to his closet space to retrieve a large, metal cylinder with a small amount of bluish gas visible through a tiny, round window in its side, "This is a universal nanite collector,” Kaden explained. “All nano-weapon collectors come with preloaded schematics, so all the nanites they collect can only go to one particular upgrade, but I built this unit to just simply collect and store them. If I go to the Battleplex and defeat a bunch of strong opponents, I can use those nanites to upgrade my gear. Mercatus is always telling me that a few pounds of Nanites were outside my budget, but there’s nothing more useful for prototyping. I’d be unstoppable! The extra bolts wouldn't hurt either, though."

Alister took a moment to stare at the cylindrical device in Kaden's hands. Nano-weapons were a relatively new thing in intergalactic warfare. He had heard he could get his Combuster upgraded with a nano-system and he had been intrigued by the concept, but had yet to see anything like it in real life. 

He then took some time to consider Kaden's words more closely, "Is this still about your grudge against Kor?" Alister said with a serious expression, while looking straight into Kaden's eyes.

Kaden returned the gaze with an equally serious look,

"Yes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:  
> The Battleplex - commercial that played from the PDA is the same one that plays over the radio in A Crack in Time. You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgKfI_KkFIw
> 
> Suavis fruit - is an extremely sweet fruit that is said to taste more like candy than anything else. Perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth and they go great in a pie. ‘Suavis’ means ‘delicious’ in Latin.


	5. The Battleplex

The Lombax-built trillium harvester moved slowly through space, following with exact precision the coordinates Kaden had programmed into its nav-system. Kaden himself sat in the passenger seat of the operator's cab.

Sparks flashed as he made last-minute alterations to a few components of his armor. He had grown fond of his G-83 suit, so much so that he decided to incorporate his gear from his old suit into it. While his usual suit of modified researcher’s armor was usually all he needed, this time he would be joining an arena-based gladiator tournament and he needed something a bit more protective, medium-class at least. 

It hadn’t been easy to wire his new gadgets into the old suit of armor, but overall it went much better than he’d expected. Kaden had already replaced the suit’s gauntlets and boots from the start, but he got lucky with the power unit’s housing. 

While Kaden’s full power unit was relatively large by modern standards, it was much smaller than what was considered state-of-the-art in the G-83’s time. Located on the back rather than the chest, he’d been able to fit his whole power core within the armored compartment and then some.

Plus, he really liked the helmet and how scary and threatening it made him feel. If Kaden hadn’t had so much work still left to do on his armor, he might have noted the psychological implications of said feelings.

Alister watched his friend work from the operator's seat of the harvester, still trying to shake the horrible feeling of remorse at having given in to Kaden's plans and helping in stealing one of his father's ships. 

When Kaden had finished detailing his entire plan to collect nanites at the Battleplex, Alister's conscience was drowned out by the ‘seemingly’ logical persuasions that Kaden had steadily poured over him. Now that they’d gone past the point of no return, however, he finally had time to think about the consequences of his actions.

"I think that went pretty well," Kaden said, trying to break the silence as he continued to work.

"I don't want to talk about it," Alister replied coldly. 

Ever since having needed to employ Kaden’s diversionary tactic to steal the harvester, Alister hadn’t spoken, choosing instead to brood over the situation. 

Kaden was getting tired of his grumpy attitude though, "It wasn't that bad. It was only a hologuise, " he continued. 

Alister turned to glare at Kaden for a moment before returning to the nav-screen, "I said I don't want to talk about it... Ever again," he repeated. 

Kaden sighed and looked up from his work, "You know... it’s not like you looked ‘bad’ in the dress."

Alister growled angrily and turned completely to face Kaden with a stiff finger pointing at him, "I swear I will turn this ship around if you mention what happened, ever, to anyone," he threatened. "The sooner we end this little trip, the better." 

Kaden rolled his eyes and returned to his work, allowing the silence to return.

...

"At least that mechanic got a good story to tell," Kaden muttered under his breath.

"That's it!" shouted Alister before reaching a hand toward the navigation controls.

Kaden leapt from his seat, grabbing Alister by the wrist and wrestling him away from the console,

"Come on, learn to take a joke," the tan Lombax grunted as he fought to hold his friend back from the ship's flight computer. 

It wasn't too hard to stop Alister from completing the intricate key commands required to readjust the navigation. However, Alister was much stronger than Kaden was physically. 

It had only a moment before Alister realized that changing the ship's course outright was a futile effort. He then turned his full attention to his opponent.

With three swift motions, Alister pushed Kaden off-balance, yanked him forward using his own grip against him, before wrapping his free arm around his friend’s head, putting the tan-furred Lombax in a headlock. 

Kaden struggled against the hold as Alister squeezed tighter and somehow he managed to slip out and make it back to the passenger's seat. He’d regained his balance just in time to take on Alister’s follow-up attack. 

There wasn't much room in the harvester’s cab for a fight, but the two Lombaxes certainly tried their best.

* * *

The Battleplex loomed large in the trillium harvester's viewport. The station itself was officially considered a ‘spaceship’, but it was a city class star cruiser, so it was more like a small moon than a spaceship. 

Massive engine thrusters protruded from the ship’s tail end, each one over a hundred times the size of the harvester itself. Powerful spotlights waved their photonic beams through the immediate space around it, where hundreds of ships orbited the gargantuan city-ship.

"Check this out," said Alister as he spotted the clear-shielded roof of the Battleplex’s main arena. 

The arena had been placed right in the middle, on top of the ship, where its command bridge would normally have been. Alister was in a much better mood than he had been earlier, but Kaden ignored his friend’s words and simply continued making adjustments to his armor. 

Alister glanced over at him from the window, "Oh, now look who's being grumpy," he prodded. 

Kaden didn't look up from his work as he replied, "I'm about to enter a gladiator tournament to the death and you think now would be a good time to pop my arm out of its socket?" he asked angrily. 

Alister shook his head, "I did no such thing. Sure it's impressive that your arm bent that far before popping, but it wouldn't have had to happen if you'd just said ‘uncle’."

"Just take us in please," the tan Lombax grumbled. "I need to finish these connections or I'll be toast in the tournament."

Alister shrugged and took hold of the harvester’s flight controls, shutting off autopilot as he did so.

“Battleplex Flight Control, this is starship lima, kilo, dash, tango, hotel, registration code two, seven, three, with two occupants,” Alister said into the ship’s radio system. “Requesting landing permission and vectors.”

“Lima?” barked a gruff voice from the speakers, “That’s rare, but all are welcome at the Battleplex. Gazer or Grinder?”

Alister looked over at Kaden with a raised eyebrow. Kaden shrugged at him in equal confusion and shook his head.

Alister leaned back into the microphone, “Excuse me?” he asked.

“Gazer or Grinder?” repeated the gruff voice. It was hard to tell, but it sounded like they were slightly annoyed as it had to explain, “Are you here to ‘gaze’ upon the majesty that is the Battleplex arena, or are you new meat for the ‘grinder’?”

Again Alister looked at Kaden and again Kaden shrugged, “Er, Grinder… I guess,” he answered.

“Really?” came the reply, with surprise clearly in its tone, “Alright then. All gladiators are given exclusive use of the V.I.P. parking garage, it has an elevator that goes straight up to the combatant’s lounge. Sending the coordinates now-” There was a pause for a moment, “you’re not really Lombaxes, are you?”

“And why wouldn’t we be?” Alister questioned back, somewhat on guard. 

“Oh, no reason… it’s just we’ve never had Lombaxes fight in the arena before, figures it happens on my shift,” the controller replied. “Anyway, good luck in the arena… you’ll need it.”

“Um, thanks?” Alister said before cutting the communicator and turning to Kaden. “Hear that? First Lombax in the Battleplex.”

Kaden simply continued working.

Alister shrugged off Kaden’s indifference and instead focused on the task at hand, guiding their large piece of mining equipment into one of the designated, open shuttle bays with practiced ease. 

Once they were parked, he opened the cab doors. Kaden grabbed his gear and they both hopped out of the ship before a giant metal claw came down from the ceiling to close around harvester. It lifted the vehicle up and pulled it sideways into an opening in the wall.

Just as they had been told, there was a solitary grav-lift sitting idly directly in front of them. There were no command keys, so it must have only had one destination, the combatant's lounge.

They both got on and it rose without hesitation.

As the grav-lift came to stop and the gates opened, the two Lombaxes found a room that looked like a casino and was filled with Agorians. The oversized creatures laughed and chatted jovially while operating the large console devices. There were also a large number of pink-skinned creatures with bulbous big heads and four spider-like legs protruding from their abdomen.

These other creatures were known as Terachnoids, a super-intelligent race that was known unofficially as the Galaxy's ‘nerd’ race. Very weak physically, the Terachnoids were born with several separate brains in their oversized craniums and were fond of pointing out how much smarter they were than every other race in the galaxy. Though, any true genius requires both intellect and imagination. It is for this reason that the Lombaxes remain the most technologically advanced race in Polaris.

It was very strange to see Terachnoids and Agorians in the same room without killing involved.... or a toilet. The two races seemed completely tolerant of each other as Kaden and Alister made their way through the room. 

Kaden assumed that they probably had some kind of symbiotic relationship. The extremely weak and intelligent Terachnoids complimented the extremely strong and dumb Agorians rather nicely once he thought about it for a moment.

But, despite the festive atmosphere, Kaden and Alister remained cautious as they looked for anything that might be the sign-up location for the tournament. 

The two Lombaxes noticed several large alcoves in the far walls. One of them had a statue of an Agorian whose expression emanated arrogance, even for an Agorian. Another one had a bunch of unassembled pieces of another Agorian statue in it. The remaining two alcoves were currently empty. 

Kaden spotted something to the side of the room, “Hey Alister, there’s a pretty large group over there, I’m going to find out what’s so interesting. You keep searching, in case it’s not the registration desk.”

Kaden didn’t wait for Alister’s reply before he wandered off. The white-furred Lombax simply shook his head and kept heading forward where soon he came to a large concierge desk with a Terachnoid standing behind it.

"Welcome, welcome to the Battleplex!" greeted the Terachnoid as Alister approached him. "We don't get many Lombaxes around here. Looking to sign up for the tournament? I’d bet the crowds would go crazy to see something like that."

"Not me, but a friend of mine is," Alister answered.

"Well if he's looking for a fight then this is definitely the right place," continued the Terachnoid energetically. "The name's Mick, Mick Mackeroy. I run the registration for all the new gladiators to the Battleplex.”

“So, is this where you sign up?” Alister asked.

“Sure is,” answered Mick. “If your friend wants to enter one of the Battleplex’s events, just have him come see me and I’ll explain the rules of the arena." 

Alister nodded his acknowledgement to Mick, “Alright, I’ll go get him then,” he said, before turning and quickly heading off back down the way he'd come.

It didn’t take him long for Alister to find Kaden again. The young Lombax was now at the center of the large group he’d spotted earlier, tapping furiously on the controls of one of the consoles. The crowd around him cheered and gasped as Kaden maneuvered a small ghost-shaped avatar around a maze, collecting little square-shaped icons and avoiding a circular monster that opened and closed its two-dimensional mouth repetitively.

Alister sighed to himself as he wondered why he wasn’t surprised. He then began pushing his way to the center, but it was hard as the onlookers were prone to sudden shifts of emotion as they cheered and jeered what was happening on the game console’s screen.

Kaden was only a few squares away from completely clearing the large maze. The enemy circle monster was hot on his ghost's trail and there was a collective drawing of breath from the group as they prepared to see Kaden's avatar get eaten.

Just before the biting circle made contact, however, Kaden's ghost avatar collected a square that was much bigger than the rest. A bolt of digital lightning suddenly struck the pursuing circle creature, turning it neon red. 

Kaden suddenly reversed the direction of his ghost. Now it chased the circle creature, which had also changed direction and was now running away. The group let out a cheer and began chanting Kaden's name as he chased down the circle monster.

They turned left and right and all around in the maze as the circle desperately tried to escape from Kaden's ghost. Despite a valiant effort, however, Kaden finally caught it. 

The screen froze and his ghost avatar slowly turned to its side and from its bottom emerged a massive jaw full of fanged teeth. It chomped down on the circle creature and red colored, digital ichor sprayed around the section of the maze that it was in, staining the virtual walls and the console screen.

The crowd erupted into cheers and applause, the loudest so far, as Kaden's ghost continued to chomp away until finally, it spat out a pair of eyeballs that rolled to a stop in the maze. The game console emitted a loud belching noise as it did so. 

Congratulations were offered from all around. One Agorian slapped Kaden on the back and nearly sent him flying face-first into the console screen.

But the cheers were suddenly cut through by a loud roar of anger that erupted from somewhere further down the line of consoles. The crowd went silent and those closest to the noise moved away to allow Kaden to get a view of the angry Agorian with its hand buried inside a smoking console screen.

"You may have gotten lucky so far, Lombax, but don't celebrate just yet!" they bellowed angrily. "Agorian tradition states that you must defeat your opponent four times in Pac-e-mon to declare absolute superiority. You still have one more round to go."

Alister tilted his head until he could see the two other broken game consoles next to the one that the angry Agorian had just punched. He also noticed the two other sets of eyeballs in the game's maze surrounded by red color. 

Kaden took a step toward the angry Agorian defiantly, "I just beat you three times in a row. This last match is just a formality," he taunted.

"Arggghhh, no one beats Athlima the Gamer!” the Agorian Bellowed. “I will have your virtual hide for my digital trophy case!" After it had finished their threat, they moved to another game console and logged in. Kaden was about to return to his controls when Alister stopped him.

"Kaden," he said sternly as he grabbed his friend's arm, "we don't have time to play around, we have to get back before anyone misses your dad's I.D. or the harvester. I found the registration desk, so let's go."

Alister began to pull Kaden away, but the crowd around them booed and hissed and a few of them even tried to block their path.

"The challenge must be completed," growled a random Agorian from the group. Several of the other background characters nodded and grumbled in agreement.

"You can't leave now!" squeaked a Terachnoid desperately. "Athlima's reign of terror over the Pac-e-mon games has gone unopposed for nearly a month. If you don't defeat her now it’ll be weeks before they finally swap out these games for new ones." 

Kaden nodded solemnly as he considered the seriousness of the situation.

"That's a girl?" Alister asked awestruck as he stared wide-eyed at Athlima, who was now waiting impatiently for Kaden to return to the game. 

Alister couldn't see a single difference between her and any of the other Agorians around. Even their voices sounded the same.

Kaden turned to the Terachnoid that had spoken, "‘You’ will have to hold my place while I register for the tournament," he declared.

"Me?!" the Terachnoid squeaked in surprise. "I can't defeat Athlima the Gamer, no one here can!" 

Kaden shook his head and put his hand on the frightened Terachnoid's shoulders, "All you have to do is not lose all four lives until I can complete my registration and return." Kaden then looked up at Athlima, "That's ok with you right?" he shouted over to the irritated Agorian.

"Whatever, just get a move on," she yelled back, slamming her fist on the console dashboard for emphasis. 

Kaden returned his attention to the Terachnoid, "You can do this. I know you have trained hard to sharpen your Pac-e-mon skills. All that time, all that effort... it was all leading up to this very moment. Fight for your game room, fight for your freedom!" 

Inspired, the Terachnoid looked up at Kaden with eyes full of hope and determination. He nodded, "I won't fail you, master."

The Terachnoid then turned to Athlima, pointed at tentacle at her, and then drew a line across his neck with it. The crowd cheered as he took up the controls on the console. Kaden and Alister then slipped out of the crowd and headed for Mick's desk.

"Who was that?" asked Alister as they ran. 

Kaden shrugged, "I don't know."

They arrived at the registration desk and Alister introduced Kaden to Mick. 

“Ah, the young fellow who wants to rumble in the dome?” Mick asked cheerfully. “I’ll just need you to fill this out and see an official form of galactic identification.” The Terachnoid then handed Kaden an application form on a holo-reader. Kaden then handed over his father's I.D. card and began filling out the registration form. 

The form had the basic stuff you’d expect: it asked him to designate his name and Agorian title of honor, a place to declare himself an organ donor after he was likely killed and there were any recoverable organs, a waiver for his right to sue over disembowelment, and a checkbox for if he’d like to sign up for holo-mail updates regarding special events or offers at the Battleplex.

Mick inspected the I.D. while Kaden filled out the form, looking back and forth from the image on it to Kaden's face. He couldn't spot anything wrong with the resemblance, but noticed something that made him pause.

"You’re on the Galactic Panel of Interstellar Know-it-alls?" he asked in surprise. 

Kaden blinked a few times and stared blankly at Mick as he thought about his response, "Yes... yes I am," he answered, stone-faced, as he returned the completed holo-reader.

At this, Mick seemed to suddenly inflate, “You know I thought about joining the Panel a few times, but I just don’t know if I’d have the time. I have a rather illustrious position in the interpretive dance circuit of this sector. The scheduling demands of my shows and practices would just be too much for one Terachnoid. In fact-”

The whole time Mick talked, Kaden kept glancing back at the rows of game stations behind him. He didn’t even feel like asking how Mick had time to be working at a registration desk in a blood sports arena.

"Mick," Alister said, as much to interrupt the stories as to ask a question, "Do you need Kaden to do anything else?"

Mick paused as he changed his focus from the rant he was about to go on.

“Well, this is usually where I go over the tournament layout,” answered Mick. "But, officially he’s all set. Whenever he’s ready he can just go on over to the teleporter pad through those doors at the top of the stairs and select the tournament he wants to enter."

“That’s fine,” said Kaden dismissively, “I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Thanks, Mick.” he added before quickly turning and running back towards the game station that he'd left earlier while desperately hoping that the random Terachnoid he'd gotten to sit in for him hadn't gotten killed yet. 

Alister watched him go before turning back to Mick, "So, just in case he can’t ‘figure it out’, would you mind telling me how the tournament works anyway?" he asked.

“Sure,” replied Mick happily. 

With a press of his tentacle, Mick brought up a holo-screen that listed several names, each under a tournament cup title.

"There are three tournaments that can be entered," he explained. "Each tournament has several different challenge set-ups and are all held in the Battleplex arena. If you can complete each challenge in a tournament's list, you'll be awarded the corresponding trophy as proof of your greatness."

Alister studied each of the three trophies shown on the holo-screen. They were Bronze, Silver, and Gold, which was a pretty standard set of reward titles.

"Those trophies would probably make a good souvenir," said Alister somewhat greedily. 

Mick laughed at his statement, "Ha-ha, they sure do. As an added bonus, each trophy is made out of metal stolen from other races, which makes them all the more valuable... in the eyes of Agorians at least, hehe." Mick looked left and right cautiously before leaning over the desk to whisper something to Alister. "Actually, rumor around the water cooler has it that the bigwigs in charge of the Battleplex want to make a ‘trillium’ cup and steal the material from the most powerful and feared race in the galaxy." Mick gave Alister a wink, "The Lombaxes." 

Alister smiled as something finally made sense to him.

"My advice Mick,"Alister replied with a cool tone, "make it out of a material that can actually be stolen, like a raritanium. You could steal that from the Vulards and you wouldn't have to lose a legion of fighters and warriors for nothing." 

Mick didn't understand what Alister meant by that, but assumed that the white-furred Lombax was simply joking, "Anyway," the Terachnoid continued as he returned to the subject of the tournament, "Your tan friend there will have to start on the first challenge of the bronze cup. Each time he wins a challenge, he'll unlock another one and the challenges get progressively harder as they go up."

Alister's face scowled as Mick finished explaining. He knew that Kaden was set on his goal to fight the toughest enemies he could, but he also knew that they didn't have time to go through all the silver and bronze matches to reach the gold before they needed to return to Kreeli. Even ‘if’ Alister could convince Kaden to go back without beating the top challenge then his impulsive friend would want to come back again, which was a bad thing for Alister.

"Hey Mick," Alister began after some thought, "is there any way we could just start from the Gold Tournament? We're a little short on time you see." 

Mick thought hard about Alister's request and eventually gave an answer very hesitantly, "Well… I guess I could make an exception. It being for a fellow Know-it-all... and all. However, the contestant has to fight a War Grok in the Gold Tournament.” 

"That's fine," said Alister enthusiastically, knowing full well what a ‘War Grok’ was and that Kaden would have to fight it. 

“Not so fast there, kid,” interjected Mick. “You see, the Agorian Council For Equal-Opportunity Dismemberment has a rule that no Gladiator can fight a War Grok for the first time on their own. They made that rule because they were losing too many rookies to the War Groks in the bronze cup challenges."

Alister raised an eyebrow, “Then how come they didn’t just remove the War Grok challenge from the bronze cup?” he asked.

Mack’s expression dimmed, “Yeah, that’s what our manager said.”

Alister looked down and noted the ‘manager’ title on Mick’s name tag.

“But, hey, at least we got new carpets!” Mick continued, with his cheerful attitude back. “Anyway, I’ve never heard of it being done before, there’s nothing that directly says the gold cup War Grok has to be fought one-on-one, so I think this loophole might just be big enough to get through.”

Alister let out a sigh of relief. Now all Kaden had to do was win the Gold Tournament and they'd be back on Kreeli before anyone ever found out. Alister watched as Mick overrode the access code to the tournament's ranking system to allow Kaden to fight. 

"Thanks for the help Mick," said Alister gratefully as he turned to leave.

"Hey, hold up there, kid," said the Terachnoid. Alister stopped and turned back around. "I scratched your back, so how's about you scratch mine, eh?"

Alister raised an eyebrow and walked back to the desk, "What do you mean?" he asked suspiciously.

"You remember that exciting dance career I mentioned earlier, right? Well, tonight there's another show starring yours truly, so how 'bout you come on down, you and your friend. I'll even give you a deal, half off both your tickets. What'd ya say?"

"Hmmm, I don't know, Mick," answered Alister with extreme disinterest. "I told you, we don't have a lot of time here."

"Come on now, kid. You haven't lived until you've seen a true Terachnoidian interpretive dance and your old pal Mick here is offering you tickets for a great price. It's even in the galaxy-famous Moonlight Lounge, right here on the Battleplex!"

Alister began backing away from the registration desk slowly, but Mick refused to accept defeat, "Hey now, I did just get your friend a one-way ticket to the Gold Tournament. The least you could do is…"

But Mick never finished his sentence. With a loud ‘whoosh’, one of the arcade console devices came flying out of nowhere, crashing through the registration desk and crushing the hapless Terachnoid underneath. 

Pieces of debris, furniture, and electronics were scattered across the previous location of the registration desk and Alister felt a pang of guilt for simultaneously feeling immense relief as he heard Mick's cries of pain.

"Owe! Somebody help me. I can't… I can't feel my legs!"

Alister quickly turned and rushed over to where he knew the source of the flying machine would likely be. 

He was soon proven right, but felt no sense of vindication, as he came upon Athlima the Gamer going berserk in the lobby. Picking up machines, chairs, and Terachnoids in equal measure and hurling them at the nimble, tan-furred Lombax doing a victory dance while simultaneously dodging the projectiles.

"You cheated, you miserable little furball!" roared the enraged Agorian.

"Don't blame me," Kaden taunted back as he dodged another flying Terachnoid with a pelvic thrust and fist pump. "You were simply hatched a lesser gamer than I… Athlima the ‘Loser’!"

There was collective "Oooo," from a group of Agorians who were watching the whole event play out. Apparently, Kaden's smack talk was very potent.

"What is the meaning of this?!" shouted another Agorian who’d just happened upon the commotion.

This new Agorian was larger than any of the other Agorians around. 

Immediately everyone either pointed to Kaden or simply ran away in terror. The large Agorian stomped up to Kaden and looked him right in the eye, which was an odd sight, being that they were three times as tall as Kaden was.

"What's a furry pipsqueak like you doing in my Battleplex?" the Agorian growled.

Kaden, for his part, looked completely unfazed, "I came to win your tournament. I had a ‘real’ reason before, but now I think I'll just do it for the fun of it."

Then, to everyone’s surprise, the large Agorian laughed "Hahaha, I liiiiike that spirit. It will make killing you in the tournament all the more glorious! Try not to die before we meet and I promise to keep your pelt displayed proudly in my trophy room." 

The large Agorian then turned to Athlima who was cowering behind one of the few undamaged consoles, "And you! It is a great shame to lose a challenge of skill, but it is an Agorian’s greatest shame to throw a tantrum and cry about it. If I had my skewering swords right now, I'd teach you the true Agorian way to face defeat. And, if I ever see your miserable face in my presence again, I will make good on that promise... skewering swords or not."

The large Agorian then walked off, leaving a visibly shaken Athlima to fall unconscious to the floor as she fainted. Everyone else in the room, that was still alive and conscious, breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

The Terachnoid that had stood in for Kaden earlier managed to pick himself up off the ground and scuttle over to the Lombax himself.

"I can't believe you spoke back to Osiris the Malevolent and can still breathe!" declared the Terachnoid excitedly.

"Osiris?" Kaden questioned. 

The Terachnoid looked surprised, "You don't even know who Osiris the Malevolent is?" he gasped. "He's one of the greatest Gladiators to ever fight in the Battleplex. He's said to have killed, tamed, or insulted at least seventy War Groks ever since he killed his first one at the age of six! He’s even known as 'The War Grok King'!" 

Alister arrived from behind the Terachnoid and had overheard the conversation, "He sounds pretty tough," the white-furred Lombax warned. 

Kaden, however, showed no signs of worry, "If I didn't expect my enemies to be tough in a gladiator death-match, I'd deserved to get killed," he said calmly. 

The Terachnoid spoke up again, "Don't underestimate Osiris, though. This is the year of the War Grok and the War Grok King is definitely looking to make this combat season a great one. That means he'll be on the arena floor with his famous seven-foot skewering swords."

Kaden simply nodded his understanding. He and Alister then walked off after bidding farewell to the small Terachnoid. The large-headed creature wished Kaden the best of luck before turning to leave himself.

After a short walk back across the destruction-strewn Combatant’s Lounge, the two Lombaxes found themselves standing in front of the large doors that Mick had mentioned earlier. 

Despite Kaden’s insistence that it wasn’t necessary, Alister gave him a quick summary of the tournament setup that Mick had explained. 

With no more preparation left, Kaden took a deep breath and led the way through the threshold into the room beyond.

The next room was more of a hallway really. Just past the doors, the walls flanking the two Lombaxes were made of a clear material which looked like glass, though it was likely stronger than that. 

Behind these clear walls was almost fifty Agorians on each side, all sitting in arena grandstand seating. They shouted insults and threats at both Kaden and Alister, as the two walked toward the teleporter pad at the other end of the hallway. 

It seemed very strange to Kaden that a bunch of spectators were sitting here like this and, aside from getting to taunt the contestants as they entered, he could see no reason for it.

But now wasn't the time to ponder the thought processes of Agorians. Now was the time to battle. Kaden stood on the pad, went over his armor and weapons diagnostics one last time, then turned to face Alister.

"Good luck," Alister told him simply with a smile. "You'll need it."

Kaden said nothing, he simply grinned back as the teleporter hummed with energy.

Just before it peaked, Kaden struck a heroic pose and Alister shook his head in good-humored disapproval. The tan Lombax was then wreathed in blue energy, before vanishing into thin air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LK-TH-273 - When Alister gives his ship callsign to the Battleplex flight control, (“lima, kilo, dash, tango, hotel, registration code two, seven, three”) it stands for ‘LK-TH-273’. This code is part of an intergalactic standard where ships are first registered by race: ‘L for Lombax’ (though, this just means it’s registered to a Lombax owner. It doesn’t have to be flown by one, thus why the flight control asks for clarification), then by said race’s territory/planetary government which it is registered to: ‘K for Kreeli Comet’, and finally the type of ship it is: ‘TH for Trillium Harvester’.
> 
> I realize that the combatant’s lounge in the game was all of twenty feet long, but I assumed it would be bigger, so I embellished. Who knows, maybe they remodeled and shrunk it so that a single Agorian’s temper tantrum wouldn’t destroy an entire deck worth of game stations.
> 
> Mick and Mac… paddy wack, give a dog a bone!… I’m sorry - In A Crack in Time, when you go into the Agorian Battleplex, you are greeted by a holographic Terachnoid named Mac Mackeroy, who mentions that he is talking through a hologram because people around the Battleplex ‘have a tendency to throw things’. In my headcanon, this is because his relative, Mick Mackeroy suffered a career-ending injury after some unknown person or persons threw a busted Pac-e-mon arcade console on him. However, I don’t know exactly how Mick is related to Mac as I don’t know how terachnoids reproduce (though, judging by the race's continued existence, I’m fairly certain it’s not by mating with a female).


	6. A New Challenger

Kaden's view of Alister, surrounded by Agorian spectators behind a glass wall, rapidly warped to one of a large arena floor surrounded by a lake of molten lava. There were spectators here as well, though many hundred times more, all roaring with excitement and howling their desire to see more combat. They were mostly Agorians, but Kaden could see a few members of other species mixed in as well.

"Here comes our next contestant!" boomed a voice over the arena speakers. "Everyone give it up for… Kaden the ‘Better Gamer’!"

The crowd cheered as his name was announced, but the tempo rose significantly as the spectators one-by-one began to notice the species of said newcomer. 

Kaden didn't pay them any attention, though. He was completely focused on what he had to do and despite his usually lax demeanor, he was going to take this challenge very seriously. 

With a final calming breath of air, he unclipped his helmet from his belt hook and placed it over his head.

Kaden didn't have to wait long before the challenge began. Throw-porters moved rapidly around the ceiling above him as they waited for an incoming traveler.

Throw-porters were a type of teleporter that took the destabilized forms of reintegrating objects and threw them a short distance before the process of reintegration was completed. 

They had their benefits, like not having a fixed reintegration point for snipers to focus on. This also allowed combatants to enter the arena without worrying about having a clear place to reassemble, which had all kinds of horrible repercussions. 

But, any teleportation device that didn't use designated-pads were significantly more prone to misalign atomic structures on reintegration if not designed properly. 

As Kaden came to the realization that he too had likely just come from one of the Throw-porters, he sincerely hoped that only the Terachnoids had anything to do with their design and assembly.

Suddenly, large yellow balls of light belched from three of the Throw-porters and landed with a starburst on the arena floor. When the light dissipated, six close-range Thrashers circled eagerly around Kaden. 

Made mostly out of junk, these mechanical combat-bots floated legless on anti-grav pads and both of their arms ended in long, sharp, metal blades. Their expressionless faces locked onto Kaden with a single-directive obsession.

Knowing that this was just an appetizer of what was to come, Kaden decided on starting out lightly by using only his wrench, as he didn't want to use up his good equipment before the match got real. 

When the first Thrasher was in range, the tan Lombax flung his OmniWrench in a perfect comet-strike. There was a loud clang as the wrench delivered a blow to the enemy, knocking it backwards and breaking a few components, before sailing cleanly through the air and back into Kaden’s hand once more.

Kaden repeated the move again on the next Thrasher. His wrench bounced off it, doing the same amount of damage, but then ricocheted onward to strike the first drone a second time. 

Just as his weapon returned, Kaden felt the other four Thrashers close in around him. He leapt backwards, completing a full backflip, just in time to dodge one of the death-machine's slashing blades.

After landing back on his feet, he was behind his assailant and didn't hesitate to deliver a three-hit Multi-strike combo. His last two swings were in range with two other Thrashers as well, giving him six hits for the price of two. 

Each strike knocked the Thrashers back and stunted their counter-attacks. 

They recovered after surviving his haymaker swing and the two closest ones lifted their blades to strike. They only managed to cut through empty air, however, as Kaden leapt back again.

Immediately after landing he threw another Comet-strike at his opponents. With a perfect ricochet, the wrench hit all four of the nearest thrashers, causing the three he'd just hit with his combos to explode as their poorly assembled frames finally took too much damage to sustain a form. 

Before the defeated Thrashers’ pieces had even hit the floor, Kaden was in the air again. He squeezed his wrench in both hands and the weapon/tool detected the inertial forces of his movement, extending its neck in preparation for a Hyper-strike. 

With a single clang followed by a small boom, Kaden delivered the heavy hit to the fourth Thrasher and it too exploded.

He then turned to face the final two Thrashers as they glided emotionlessly toward him, his evisceration the only thing on their processors. 

Kaden dispatched these two easily with another Comet strike and a couple of simple swings.

"How about that folks?" the Announcer boomed again. "No tools, no weapons, just a Lombax, and his wrench." 

The crowd cheered for Kaden's display as he walked through the shattered pieces of the combat drones. As he did so, he mentally activated the nanite collector strapped to the back of his armor.

In any autonomous creature which used Nanotech, be it organic or robotic, there needed to be a main control module somewhere in their body, usually attached to the brain or central damage receptors, which instructed nanites on how to repair the systems they were contained in. 

So long as this device was intact, it had absolute control of the nanites in its particular system. Without it, however, Kaden's universal hack signals could override the unused and now deactivated nanites.

As his signals echoed invisibly across the arena, the nanites within each shattered piece of Thrasher began to vibrate violently and disintegrate any material it was attached to. 

As limbs and scrap metal began to dissolve on the floor, Kaden could see a soft blue mist of the newly airborne nanites, forming a porous trail of vapor which ended at his collection tank. 

On his HUD, a small bar filled partially. It represented the amount of space he had left in his tank for storage. After it was full, he'd either have to empty it or use it to upgrade a piece of his equipment.

Once the cheap, scrap metal bodies of the Thrashers had disappeared, the nigh indestructible bolts, which had also been used in their construction, were shaken free. 

Dozens of tiny, golden objects flew up from the ground once the Bolt-grabber on Kaden's wrench was close enough to attract them. He grinned inside his mask at the sight of several dozens of bolts, in many shapes and sizes, that coated his wrench.

There was a familiar hum of energy as the Throw-porters charged again, followed by four beams of light that shot down from the ceiling, hatching into another six Thrashers and two Agorians with long, arm-mounted blades. 

Two of the Thrashers also sported an energy cannon strapped to their heads. 

Immediately the two Agorians rushed Kaden.

Kaden dodged a wide swipe from the first one and was about to avoid the second Agorian when it stumbled with a grunt of surprise. It turned around to stare angrily at one of the cannon equipped Thrashers. 

Apparently, the small robot had taken a shot at Kaden and the Agorian had run into the line of fire. Kaden could see a large burn wound on the Agorian's back. 

Brushing off the hit, however, the Agorian turned back to its prey and resumed its attack alongside the first one.

Before the match had begun Alister had lent Kaden his Combustor and a few of his grenades. Still not wanting to use his big guns yet, Kaden drew his friend’s Combustor and let loose dozens of burning fireballs at both the Agorians and Thrashers. 

Just like they had in the caves, the Agorians seemed almost immune to the superheated rounds. The Thrashers,, on the other hand, were much more susceptible.

It didn't take long for Kaden to dispatch the robotic foes with the simple blaster and a few well-aimed wrench strikes. Only the Agorians, covered in scars and boils, now remained. 

As they continued to charge headlong at Kaden, while swiping with their long arm-mounted blades, it was clear that no matter what damage their bodies took, their tiny, adrenaline saturated brains did not care. Kaden decided to end them with the simple toss of a single fragmentation grenade, followed by a definitive boom.

Before the two Agorians had even hit the ground, the Throw-porters were charging again. With hardly time to catch his breath, Kaden was surrounded by over a dozen small, red, robotic drones and two more Agorians. 

These drones, known as Pyrospinners, had no sapient features to their design. Two tiny plasma cutters protruded from either end of their round frames and they spun like tops on the ground, leaving scorch marks in the arena floor as they closed in on their target.

The two Agorians each had an arm cannon and a yellow shield. They kept a safe distance as they lobbed their blinking time bombs across the arena at their enemy. 

Every time Kaden tried to grab one, like he’d done in the mine shaft on Kreeli, a Pyrospinner would block his path, slowing him down just enough so that if he'd continued to go after the bombs, they would detonate before he could return it. 

Kaden growled in frustration at this onslaught and decided that he needed a new strategy.

In the large, open arena, Kaden no longer had to worry about cave-ins, so he herded all the Pyrospinners to the edge of the arena floor and activated his Nuclear Fist. 

Before his handheld fusion reaction reached critical, however, the tan Lombax activated his hoverboots and blasted off towards the thrall of spinners, leaping clear over them just before the collision. He landed in between the two Agorians, who put up their shield defensively, expecting an attack. 

Kaden ignored the brutes and continued forward. The Pyrospinners followed him mindlessly and at the exact moment when the pack was in between the two Agorians, he fired his weapon straight at the group’s heart.

The explosive boom that followed shook the arena floor, causing the moat of lava that circled it to lap up against its sides. When the dust of vaporized enemies had cleared and the crowd got a good look at the result, they began cheering furiously at the amazing display of devastation. 

The announcer added his comments as well, "Unbelievable!” he shouted. “The little guy made it through without so much as a scratch. I guess we'll have to add another wave or two to this challenge."

Before he’d even processed the announcer’s words, there was a flash of light and Kaden suddenly found himself back on the teleporter pad he'd used to enter the competition in the first place. 

It took him a moment before he realized that the challenge was over. He was also a little surprised at how easy it'd been. 

The peanut gallery of Agorians was also still there, shouting things like 'You just got lucky' and 'Just wait until Osiris gets his hands on you'. 

Kaden simply ignored them.

A moment later the tan Lombax’s ears twitched as they detected the familiar sound of hoverboots from outside the room, just before the doors slid open to allow Alister to pass through on a trail of fire. 

He blasted right up to Kaden before cutting his jets, "Pretty impressive," the white-furred Lombax began approvingly. "You should have heard some of the spectators in the stands. They were losing their minds when you got away without taking a single hit. They'll probably make that a challenge requirement now."

Kaden smiled behind his mask as he began to stretch and jog in place to keep his body from cooling down, "That's nothing, I'm saving the big fireworks for the finale," he replied. 

Alister rubbed his hands together with anticipation, "I can't wait to see, except that the next challenge is supposed to be a survival one. You don't have to kill anyone, just not get killed yourself for about three minutes."

Kaden nodded as he took in the information. It may have been true that it wasn't a challenge requirement to kill more Agorians, but Kaden was here for nanites, not trophies. Besides, they were Agorians. They'd probably be more upset if they survived after losing the challenge.

“Well, no time like the present, I’m heading back in,” Kaden told Alister.

Alister smiled smacked his friend’s shoulder plate, “Good luck,” he said, and was about to blast off again when Kaden stopped him.

"Wait, are you even allowed to use those in here?" he asked as he gestured to Alister's hoverboots.

"Of course you are," Alister said and gave Kaden a mischievous smile. "None of the security guards have told me I couldn’t. Though they always get up and start running around when they see me, like they're about to chase someone, so I just leave them alone… in my dust."

Kaden nodded his approval and turned to activate the teleporter again.

* * *

For the second challenge, several sections of the arena floor had been elevated and moved away from the center. Kaden had been placed on the centerpiece and Agorians were teleported onto the platform’s islands, where they then began hurling large flail-like cluster bombs at him. 

A timer in Kaden’s HUD told him he had to survive a time limit of two minutes and thirty seconds. 

The announcer mentioned something about the Agorians attacking him as being members of some hunter's union and how they loved killing furry creatures for the sport and the pelts, but Kaden didn’t find the information relevant.

The young Lombax didn't have a tough time dodging the spiky bombs, though, so he doubted that these ‘hunters’ had ever fought something as clever or agile as a Lombax. 

It was also very obvious to anyone when one of the Agorian was about to throw another bomb, because they had to spin it around over their heads a few times before it had enough momentum to be tossed any sort of distance.

In between attacks, Kaden sent a few Combustor rounds and grenades at his distant assailants. He got a particularly large sense of satisfaction when one of his Combustor shots hit a swinging cluster bomb and detonated it above an Agorian's head.

Slowly, however, the number of attackers began to increase and, by the top of the final minute of the challenge, there were over a dozen Agorians, all hurling cluster bombs at different intervals. They also had Kaden flanked and because of this, it was here that the Battleplex’s newest contender took his first hit.

Likely more of an accident than a good shot, Kaden told himself, the cluster bomb hit him right in the back, just as he landed from a jump. He didn't even see it coming as it knocked him down across the floor and the Agorian who threw it roared in triumph. Luckily, Kaden’s armor was plenty strong enough to protect him from a few unlucky hits.

Things only continued to get harder from there. So bad, in fact, that Kaden finished the last thirty seconds of the challenge by getting so fed up with all the incoming bombs that he just started setting off as many Nuclear Fist blasts in the cluster of enemies as he could in the time limit remaining. 

This wasn't very good for his armor's power core, though. It wasn't like he was anywhere near dangerous levels yet, but the thought of being pushed to the point of such a large power consumption worried Kaden slightly… at least ‘after’ he had finished the challenge.

* * *

Kaden now stood again over the teleporter pad, ready to begin the third round. This one was also timed, but it was the opposite of the second. ‘He’ was now the attacker and had to defeat a stream of incoming enemies before a timer ran out. 

In a flash, he was back on the Arena floor and immediately the enemies started pouring in. At first, the stream was easy to handle, mostly just Pyrospinners and blade-wielding Thrashers. As he cut them down though, more enemies were teleported in and they steadily became tougher.

As he found himself being surrounded again by robotic enemies and a few Agorians, Kaden pulled several containers from his armor's holsters and tossed them across the arena. A brown mist poured out of them as they bounced and rolled across the floor, filling most of the air above the arena with brown fog. 

The Agorians at first reacted like the gas was poisonous. Stupidly, they tried holding their breaths until it cleared, but after one accidentally breathed it in and showed no ill side effects, they all turned back to their task of trying to kill Kaden.

A couple of seconds later, however, the results of the canister's gas could be seen. 

Dubbed 'Dietary Iron', until Kaden could think of a better name, the small canisters had each released hundreds of thousands of tiny robots similar to nanites, with the sole designed and programmed purpose of destroying every piece of metal they could touch. 

Robotic enemies began falling apart or spontaneously exploding from the damage wrought by these tiny machines. One Agorian ran through the brown mist and swung its blades at Kaden. 

Kaden reached up to block the weapons with his wrench, but the moment the two weapons made contact, the Agorian's long blades shattered as the tiny holes that had perforated their structure rendered them too brittle to use.

Kaden fought on and, as he was about to dispatch another Thrasher with his wrench, he suddenly felt a strong gravitational force grab him from behind. It lifted him up off the ground and pulled him across the arena. 

Midair he looked up to find that he was headed straight for a Thrasher that had a large ring above its head. It was clearly a grav-tether and the cause of Kaden's vertigo.

The Thrasher pulled back its bladed arms in preparation for Kaden's arrival. Just before it could swing, however, Kaden managed to strike first. A solid Hyper-strike ended the Thrasher quickly, but the unexpected movement had pulled him within range of another Agorian. 

The large creature roared in excitement, startling Kaden, who saw it too late. It swung its blade true, striking the Lombax hard, leaving a gash in his armor that nearly stretched over the full length of his stomach. It was meant to disembowel him, but his armor took the brunt of the damage, and the force of the hit sent him skating across the arena floor.

"Oooooh, I bet that had to hurt," declared the announcer in the midst of the crowd's bloodlust-fuelled cheers.

Kaden could feel the sharp pain from the areas where the blade ‘had’ penetrated his armor. The large gash in his suit dribbled blood for just a moment before the Nanotech in his bloodstream repaired the wound and numbed the pain. 

The tan Lombax simply gritted his teeth through the stinging feeling and stood back up. 

This hadn’t been the first painful hit he'd suffered in this match. His armor was now covered in dents, gouges, and burning craters. He did have some Nanotech set to repair his armor as well as himself, but it took a lot of nanites to fully repair equipment and the whole point of this match was to collect nanites, not use them. Each consecutive hit he suffered would mean a little more lost armor integrity and that meant he'd be receiving even more flesh wounds as time went on.

With a deep breath, Kaden straightened his posture, relaxing from his usual combat stance. The Agorians took this as a sign that he'd given up and charged forward on the spike of adrenaline that came from seeing their victory in sight. 

Instead, the Lombax smoothly removed a grenade from his holsters and tossed it straight up into the air. As he’d hoped, most of the enemies around him looked up at the object, cautious of where it might land, just before it exploded in a blinding flash of light. 

The Agorians roared angrily as their eyesight was taken from them. Many of the crowd had also suffered a similar, but diminished effect, due to their distance from the arena. 

As vision returned to the Agorian warriors, they looked around in search of their prey. They easily found Kaden again, but their confusion did not subside. 

Instead of one annoying Lombax, five identical, armored Lombaxes now occupied the arena, each one running away to a different corner while nimbly dodging the androids that hadn't been blinded. 

The robotic enemies processed the information quickly, uncaring about the odd turn of events and simply attacked the Lombax that was nearest to them as their programming dictated.

Eventually, the Agorians reached the same conclusion as their metal counterparts and attacked the closest enemy with gusto. 

After several prolonged clashes, no one on the arena floor could seem to land another clean hit against the now purely defensive Lombaxes. 

The only reason Kaden’s enemies had really been able to score a hit on him before now was because of their overwhelming numbers. But, now that their focus had been divided by five, they could only attack in numbers that were easy to keep an eye on for each individual Kaden.

In order to use his main weapon, Kaden needed to let it charge up for a short period of time and any damage he took while it did so risked interfering with the charging process and detonating the bomb prematurely. 

Now that the constant pressure of attack was lifted, all five of the Kaden's activated their Nuclear Fists and at the exact same time, fired them at the same targeted location. 

Once again the micro-nuke blasted away a large portion of the enemy combatants, leaving only a few stunned Agorians behind and a wildly excited crowd who cheered on such mass destruction.

Seconds later reinforcements replaced the lost fighters. Kaden's HUD said he was almost through the challenge, but most of the reinforcements were Agorians, which were much tougher than the mindless drones. 

Even worse, one particularly aggressive Agorian seemed to take charge of the situation, "Focus your attack on that one!" it ordered gruffly to a group of cannon wielding Agorians while pointing at a random Lombax.

They did as they were told, too confused by the number of identical opponents to argue, and unleashed a constant salvo of time bombs and fireballs toward the designated target. 

The warrior who had taken charge, even with the intelligence of an Agorian, had noticed that none of the five Lombaxes had yet to attack anyone so far. Their only retaliation had been with the single, heavy, explosive attack, aimed at the same point, which made it impossible to tell which was the real one.

As Kaden desperately avoided the sudden focus of incoming weaponry, the lead Agorian charged in at the perfect moment with his large arm-mounted swords. 

Too distracted by the incoming explosives to notice new danger fast enough, the tan Lombax was a sitting duck as the leading Agorian swung hard, aiming for his neck… and cutting right through it.

There was no blood or even a reaction from the Lombax. The blade had simply passed right through Kaden as if through thin air. However, Agorian grinned triumphantly all the same, as the image of the Lombax flickered and pixelated, before finally disappearing, revealing a floating metal orb where the hologram's chest had been.

"They're just holograms!" roared the Agorian leader as he waved a hand toward the hovering orb. The other Agorians took a moment from their assault to see what he was talking about. "Only one of the little furballs is real. All we have to do is-"

But the Agorian's words were cut off as the holo-projection orb detonated in a huge explosion that ripped limb from body. 

As the other Agorians recovered from the surprise of the sudden explosion, another Holo-clone leapt into the center of four Agorians and detonated in the same way the first had, vaporizing them all simultaneously.

With grunts and squeals of anguish, the other Agorians ran from the remaining three Lombaxes, terrified that the one they were fighting was actually a bomb-in-disguise. 

Another holo-clone took off running straight for a second group of Agorians. The moment they saw its intentions, they dispersed, not wanting to give it more victims for its single suicide attack. 

Seeing that it couldn't get them all, the holo-clone chose to chase down a single Agorian and lifted one of its arms towards it. With a resounding twang, two spikes attached to wires launched from the clone’s wrist and embedded themselves in the Agorian's back. Kaden then poured high voltage electricity directly into his enemy's body, frying it from the inside out.

The other Agorians that had fled from the suspected clone saw what Kaden had done and called to their compatriots when they realized the truth. The moment the real Lombax was revealed, every Agorian charged headlong after Kaden with even more drive than before. They all wanted to finish the fight before he could mix in with the remaining doppelgangers again. 

With a piercing whine, Kaden activated his hoverboots and sped fearlessly straight towards the center of the Agorian mass. Then, with a burst of fire, he leapt clean over the group, dropping some of Alister's grenades as he did so. 

Explosions went off one after another as the center ranks took the brunt of the damage.

Disorientated, the remaining Agorians turned to give chase once more, but found that their target was standing right next to them. The nearest Agorians looked down in confusion. Realization dawned on its faces just before the third Holo-clone detonated in their midst.

When the smoke cleared only one Agorian remained. It stood quivering on its scrawny legs as the two remaining Lombaxes approached it slowly from opposite sides.

Both of the Kadens raised their hands and electricity sparked across the air around them as their Nuclear Fists charged. Knowing what was coming, the Agorian shifted its fear and indecision into rage. Raising both swords into the air, it roared defiantly and sprinted at full speed toward one of its enemies at random.

The hum of energy grew louder, but the Agorian heard nothing except the pounding of its own heart as it ran headlong towards its target, arms spread wide and ready to strike. 

It roared once again just before coming within range of the Lombax... and slammed headfirst into a repulsor field that had appeared from nowhere. The Agorian had chosen correctly, but ended up falling to the ground as its head spun from the impact. 

Taking the opportunity, Kaden lowered his shield and ran in the opposite direction of his enemy. The audience laughed at the antics and the Agorian warrior felt great shame. Even the announcer was simply laughing over the speakers rather than commenting.

As its headache gave way to even more rage and anger the Agorian got back up on its feet. Roaring again as it prepared to charge once more, but there was suddenly silence from the crowd. This caused the Agorian to pause in wonder. 

The Warrior looked around in confusion, wondering what the silence was about, until it saw Kaden standing to its side waving cheerfully. 

The Agorian's shoulders slumped and it whimpered sadly before the final Holo-clone exploded in its face.

Before the final echoes of the explosion had even faded, the crowd erupted in cheers and the room rang with applause as the announcer, to his stated surprise, declared Kaden the winner. 

Kaden panted hard as his muscles protested the extreme strain they'd been put under. Once again there was a flash of light and the arena was replaced by the now familiar teleporter room. The battered Lombax took a few steps away from the pad and sat down on the floor and let out a huge sigh. 

Alister showed up a moment later, grinning widely and full of giddy excitement, "That was nuts!" he exclaimed before he even stopped his boots. "Why didn't I ever get to test out the suicide Kadens?"

Kaden wrenched off his helmet and breathed in deeply before laying his head against the glass wall behind him. The clear material felt cool on his fur. The ever-present Agorian peanut gallery was behind it, jeering and throwing insults as always, but both Kaden and Alister were now tuning them out reflexively.

"I'll tell you what," Kaden began, breathless with exhaustion, "if I survive this, I'll give you a set of your own Holo-Alisters. How about that?" 

Instead of looking happy from the promise of toys, Alister's expression got more serious and concerned, "Are you going to be ok?" he asked with his eyes focused on the large gash in Kaden's stomach. 

Kaden nodded reassuringly, "It's not as bad as it looks and besides," Kaden reached behind him and pulled out a large container full of blue liquid, "I'd say that things are going better than expected nanite-wise. I'm going to rest for a bit, would you mind getting my spare nanite tank from the harvester? I didn't think I'd need it, but if the next couple of challenges are even tougher than the last one, I will." 

Alister shook his head, "If the next few challenges are any worse than the last one, you might not make it at all," he said solemnly. 

Kaden laughed him off and changed the subject, "Do you think we could figure out a believable story to get away with visiting the infirmary again?" he asked. "I'm probably going to need a full bio-scan after this." 

Alister thought for a bit, "I don't know what possible work-related accident could cause all the Nanotech scars that you have. Maybe if I told them you jumped head-first into the ore pulverizer from processing," Alister answered, half-jokingly. "Besides, I thought you didn't like the med-bay. You were acting weird after the last time you went." 

Kaden furled his eyebrows as he tried to recall what Alister was talking about, "Actually, now that you mention it, I don't really remember clearly how the whole thing went," Kaden admitted. "But I wouldn’t mind going if Dr. Gigi was taking care of me again."

"Gigi?" asked Alister in confusion. "There's no way Gigi could have given you your examination. At the time, she was running around outside the head doctor's office half nak-" Alister stopped and his eyes widened with realization. He looked back down at Kaden with an even more serious expression than before. "Kaden… before this weekend, we need to have a serious talk about something."

Kaden tried briefly, but couldn't think of anything that might explain what Alister meant by his words, "Whatever you want," he said dismissively, before he began examining his armor's damage more closely and mentally running a system diagnostics. "Just two more challenges to go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘Better Gamer’ - Kaden’s chosen Agorian battle title should be obvious after his defeat of ‘Athlima the Gamer’ in the previous chapter. But remember, Kaden wrote down his title when he registered at Mick’s desk. This meant he had chosen his title as a direct mockery of his opponent ‘before’ he’d even beaten them.


	7. Like a Lomboss

Alister helped Kaden replace the nanite container on his back as well as adjust a few other components of armor. Despite his initial concerns, he did have to admit that the damage to his friend’s armor had looked worse than it actually was. Only a few attacks had actually managed to reach fur, and of them, only the one on Kaden's stomach had actually caused any real damage. 

The rest of the dents and scratches were just superficial and any circuitry that was damaged while fighting was quickly repaired with Kaden's personal supply of nanotech. Despite the massive tank-full that he had, though, Kaden hadn't replenished his personal supply.

"Kaden," Alister began as he checked one of the suit's power lines, "I know the point is to save as many nanites as possible, but couldn't you use a few that you've collected to repair your armor?" 

Kaden flexed his gauntlets to make sure the finger joints had stopped tightening up, "I would if I could,” he said, “but the nanites I've collected so far are still tuned to whichever enemy I took them from. I can force them to vibrate wildly then suck them up into a container, but I'll need to recalibrate them back at the Lab before I can use them for much more than that."

"Ah," said Alister in comprehension. 

Kaden finished gearing up and did one last, quick trot around the room to ensure that there were no other problems with his armor.

"Well, I'm ready for the fourth challenge I guess," Kaden declared, unenthusiastically.

"Just remember that this next round is supposed to be a death match with another Gold Cup challenger,” warned Alister. “Unlike you, they've actually beaten the Bronze and Silver Cup tournaments. It's guaranteed to be a tough match.

One of the Agorians behind the glass took this time to draw attention to itself.

"Hahaha!" it laughed mockingly. "I know who you'll be fighting. This warrior is guaranteed to put on a great 'show'." 

Many of the other Agorians growled and grunted their agreement with the first and a few others even laughed. Kaden simply ignored them.

"I didn't come all this way to give up now,” insisted Kaden. “How tough could they be anyway?" 

Alister shook his head, "Famous last words, just watch your tail."

Kaden smiled and patted his waist, which his tail was currently wrapped around, behind a layer of armor. Alister smiled at the gesture and gave his friend his usual good-luck shoulder smack.

Kaden nodded one last time before he turned to go.

He took one last deep breath, then he stepped onto the teleporter. 

In a flash, Kaden was back on the arena floor, with the crowds and the molten lava all around. 

Immediately the announcer spoke, "Ok folks, it's time for the second greatest challenge that the Battleplex has to offer. Two Gladiators go in and only one... or less, comes out. Today we have our surprisingly hard-to-kill newcomer, Kaden the Better Gamer," There was a strong mix of reactions from the crowds. Half seemed to applaud Kaden while the other half clearly had hoped for him to die in the previous matches. Kaden ignored both. "Versus a true showman of the arena floor, someone who never lets a match get dull, you all know him, because he's impossible to miss, join me in welcoming… Percy the Dazzling!"

This time the ‘entire’ crowd erupted in cheers as the large circle in the center of the arena opened up and disco music began to play through the loudspeakers. Mist spewed from the floor opening and the metallic sound of a moving elevator lift was almost drowned out by the crowd as they all began to chant the name 'Percy' over and over again.

Through the mist, Kaden could barely make out the form of an Agorian. They were bent over and kneeling with their head down. Kaden was wary though. He immediately got into a defensive stance and prepared for whatever surprises this 'Percy' could deliver. 

The silhouette continued to rise slowly with the elevator and the sounds of both the crowd and the music softened slightly, as if in anticipation.

There was a sudden, loud blast of music as the Agorian in the mist leapt high into the air and out from the cover of the fog. The crowd roared once more as Percy began to rapidly move around the edge of the arena on what appeared to be wheels strapped to a pair of boots. If Kaden recalled correctly, they were known in the historical archives as 'roller skates'. 

This wasn't the most interesting part either. What really grabbed the crowd's attention was that Percy was also wearing a blindfold.

Kaden wasn't fooled though, with the way that his opponent was zipping around the arena, he knew that ‘Percy the Dazzling’ had to have been able to see. Even though his moves looked like the hectic and random movements of a blind skater, the simple fact was that there was no way that any Agorian could skate blindfolded that close to the edge of the lava moat without falling into-

Even through the cheers of the crowd, Kaden could clearly hear the gasp of surprise that left the speeding Agorian’s mouth as he felt himself skate clean off the arena floor and onto thin air. Once gravity took over, the sound was immediately replaced by a confused yelp of pain, which was then itself quickly muffled as the Agorian's head submerged under the lava's surface.

The last sounds of Percy the Dazzling was the gurgle of an air bubble that belched to the surface.

For a long time, the crowd kept cheering, believing this too to be a stunt. But, as the famed Agorian failed to resurface, slowly they began to fall silent until the entire arena was veiled in absolute quiet.

"Well folks," broke in the announcer hesitantly, "I always thought Percy was more of a 'the Incongruous' than 'the Dazzling'… haha, eh… let me check my rule book."

There was a brief moment of continued silence, then, like a hive of bees being disturbed, the air was quickly filled with the buzzing of confused and angry chatter. Kaden stayed in his defensive position, he didn't want to put anything past his enemies, but also because, to him, it seemed like what he just witnessed was too stupid to be real.

Soon, however, the announcer came back on the speakers, "According to the rulebook here, let's see...'One-on-one arena combat begins the moment both contestants enter the arena. If one or more of the contestants are killed within ten seconds of the match start, there will be a formal inquiry and the match results will be postponed until such time as their review'. Jimmy, what was the time on that match?" 

There was another brief pause and then the holo-screens that dotted the arena ceiling flashed to life with a number. It read: ‘11.35 sec’. 

"Well, then," The announcer continued with the sound of book slamming shut, "It seems that Kaden the Better Gamer has won… congratulations?"

Just as the arena was filling with full on outcries of disappointment, boos, and shouts of anger, Kaden disappeared in a flash of light. 

The Lombax stood on the teleporter pad, still in his defensive stance, surrounded by the familiar staging room. Despite how many times he reviewed it in his head, some part of him just couldn't accept the fact that he'd won without moving an inch.

The peanut gallery was just as dead silent and confused as Kaden was. Instead of hurling their usual insults, they just sat there. Kaden shook himself back to reality. He took a step off the teleporter pad... then stopped himself, turned back around, and walked right back onto it.

* * *

Kaden arrived back into the arena to find the crowd in utter chaos. Agorians fought with each other and tossed the helpless few non-Agorians around in their utter dissatisfaction. The announcer tried to calm them down with repeated promises of matches to come, but no one seemed to hear. That was, until he noticed Kaden's return for the fifth and final match of the Gold Tournament.

"Listen up folks! This is the moment you've all been waiting for,” The announcer shouted eagerly. “Here to take on the single most dangerous challenge that the Battleplex has to offer, where he will go head to head with a massive piece of military hardware and… a War Grok! Welcome back Kaden the Better Gamer!"

The crowd slowly stopped fighting as comprehension broke over them and their shouts of anger transformed into yells of approval. They then started to fight again, but this time it was over the seating, as everyone tried to claim the ones closest to the front in the ensuing chaos.

"First up is the War Grok," the announcer continued. "For some reason, my monitor says that this is Kaden's first time fighting one at the Battleplex, which should be impossible, but I don't care at this point! Ladies and gentlemen, the Agorian council has heard your cries of anguish over the previous match and has taken it into consideration when they chose who this young Lombax's partner will be. Give it up for the King of the War Groks himself… Osiris the Malevolent!"

The roar of the crowd reached a fever pitch that Kaden had yet to think possible as the figure of Osiris the Malevolent rose from the center of the arena just like Percy had. Attached to each arm was a blade that measured at least seven feet long. Osiris raised both of them into the air and the rafters and holo-boards shook with the thunderous sound of the Battleplex patrons' cheers and applause. 

Slowly the Agorian in the center of the arena’s lizard-like features turned, giving the crowd a good look at him, before his gaze came to rest on Kaden. 

Osiris then walked forward, "It seems you've kept our promise, Lombax!" bellowed Osiris with a hugely satisfied grin. "I was worried, at first, when the council declared me too experienced to be matched with you in the previous challenge. Lucky for both of us that Percy ‘the Incongruous’ was a fool to the very end." 

Kaden stepped forward to face the oversized Agorian, his voice echoing through his helmet with the same terrifying, metallic tone as Kor (a recently added feature), "But this is not a battle between us. You only get a shot at me if the War Grok doesn't kill me first," said Kaden. He was suspicious of anyone who would talk about killing him when their job was to help him… or anyone who wanted to kill him in general. 

Osiris threw back his head and laughed loudly, "I've slain dozens of these beasts; they are no match for me and my blades. I will guarantee you this, Kaden the Better Gamer… no War Grok will have the pleasure of killing you whilst I still stand."

Osiris stood a few feet away and turned to face the arena lift from whence he'd come, as he'd done dozens of times before.

Kaden shrugged and started to jog in place to keep his muscles loose. This was the fifth and final round. If he survived, then it was all over and he could leave with a shiny gold trophy and his real prize, the nanites.

The cheering of the crowd started to subside and silence began to fill the arena. It became so quiet one could almost hear the collective breathing of the fans. 

Tension steadily built up in the air until it was broken by the announcer,

"The Waaaaaar Grok!" he boomed over the speaker. 

The moment he did so, the mechanical sounds of the elevator lift screeched into life.

The lift zoomed up to the arena floor, carrying on it a massive ape-like creature covered mostly with white fur, but its back appeared to be some kind of organic, rocky volcano. The creature immediately reared up on its hind legs and roared while repeatedly beating its chest with its massive fists. It came back down on all fours a moment later with an echoing thud. Its pupil-less eyes locked onto Kaden and Osiris and it growled angrily, baring its fangs while drool dripped from its mouth.

Kaden gulped involuntarily. The creature was bigger than he'd expected it to be. He'd need a lot of firepower to bring it down, so he decided then and there to go for broke right out of the gate. 

Since Osiris's only weapons were close range he could assume that the Agorian would attack first. This distraction should give him enough time to charge his Nuclear Fist and with any luck, he could put the tiny exploding star in a sensitive spot.

Just as Kaden raised his hand to charge the blast, a huge blade came swinging in from the corner of his vision. He moved as quickly as his reflexes would allow, but they weren't quick enough to prevent the blade from carving out a line of meat from the side of his ribcage. 

Kaden felt the shooting pain of his nerves screaming as the blade reached bone.

The force of the hit sent him sliding away across the arena floor. He managed to stop himself and come up to his feet, hand clamped onto the newly opened wound at his side as the Nanotech quickly fixed the worst of the damage.

"What are you doing?!" Kaden yelled at the madly grinning Agorian as it licked blood off its blade.

"I told you, I'm here to collect your hide," Osiris explained as if it were obvious.

A second wave of pain hit Kaden as the initial shock of the cut wore off and this time he almost vomited. The damage must have been very severe if the Nanotech was prioritizing tissue repair over any and all pain relief.

"You're supposed to help me win this match!" Kaden continued through teeth clenched in pain. "That's against the rules."

Osiris laughed at Kaden's words, "And so is participating in the gold tournament without first winning the bronze and silver, loophole or no," he retorted. "Now prepare to die, Lombax!"

Osiris cocked his right arm back in preparation to strike while gazing hungrily at Kaden's hunched form. Then, he charged. 

Kaden raised his wrench to defend himself while trying to figure out the best move to make in his weakened condition. 

But, just before Osiris was within range to strike, a massive grey hand slammed into the floor between them.

The forgotten War Grok roared at Osiris, splattering him with spittle. 

The Agorian wasn't fazed at all by the threatening display. He simply smirked up at the beast. 

The War Grok swept its massive hand towards Osiris, but the Agorian leapt over the attack with practiced ease. It then swung its other fist down the same way, which Osiris once again dodged easily. 

The War Grok roared in frustration and reared up on its hind legs. It then brought both hands swinging in at Osiris at the same time. Osiris laughed as he took a quick and precisely timed step backwards and to the side. 

The palms of the War Grok's hands collided at the exact spot the Agorian had been just milliseconds ago. The crushing force of the attack was so powerful that it compressed the air enough to make it visible for a moment. It blasted out from between the creature's palms like a slicing blade.

As the two creatures fought, Kaden took advantage of the situation. He raised his arm and activated his Nuclear Fist once again. It was an ironic situation, considering it had been his plan to let Osiris distract the War Grok all along, before he'd known that the Agorian wasn't planning on helping him at all. Now he just had to decide which of the two bloodthirsty monsters he wanted to kill first. Kaden's logic suggested that he kill the bigger one, so that's what he went with.

The compressed ball of shimmering plasma flew from his hand with a screech of burning air before hitting the War Grok square in its shoulder. There was a roar of pain from the beast as flesh and bone were vaporized. 

When the light had dissipated, and Kaden's lenses had unshielded themselves, he could then see the results of his attack. The War Grok was still on its feet, but almost half of its shoulder had been disintegrated, one of its eyes were shut tight, likely damaged badly or destroyed, and its arm hung loosely at its side.

There was an odd sound, almost like a whimper, from the beast as it recovered from the shock. It roared again, but didn't attack. Instead, it shuffled back towards the corner of the arena, watching the Lombax and the Agorian cautiously. 

Osiris got back to his feet from where the explosion had knocked him down. He brushed himself off and walked toward Kaden casually. Kaden put his wrench on guard and stood straight, now that his wounds had healed.

"I pegged you wrong Lombax," said Osiris in an almost friendly tone. "I thought you'd try to kill me while I played with that foolish beast and yet you scared it off so that we could fight properly. I'm both honored and impressed." 

Osiris eased himself into his own attack pose as Kaden began to circle him, "Maybe I just thought that you'd be easier to handle than a two-ton bloodthirsty War Grok," Kaden shot back as he slowly reached for a canister from his weapons holster. 

Osiris smiled widely as he stopped moving with his blades poised, "Then you thought wrong."

Osiris leapt forward, much faster than Kaden had thought possible with an Agorian's tiny legs. He barely had time to raise his wrench, one-handed, while holding the canister in his other. 

With a flash of sparks, Kaden deflected the first attack. He jumped back to put some distance between them, but Osiris closed it again just as quickly. 

Kaden swung down as Osiris swung up and sparks flashed again from the collision of their weapons. 

Kaden rolled away from another attack and Osiris put on more pressure as he delivered a devastating storm of strikes and jabs. 

Kaden tried his best, but he couldn't block them all. Here and there a few attacks would manage to scrape the edge of his armor, but they were all part of Osiris's fighting style. The true threat would come once Kaden was off balance enough and the experienced Agorian gladiator struck the main blow.

The tan Lombax learned this the hard way.

With an uncontrolled shout of pain and surprise, Kaden felt a seven-foot-long skewering sword stab straight through his right shoulder. The blade passed straight through both his front and back layers of armor, plus the flesh in between. 

The force of the thrust was even enough to knock Kaden off his feet and pin him to the floor. 

Osiris howled a victory cry as he put his face close to Kaden's, mad delight shining brightly from his eyes, "This is it, Lombax," Osiris hissed as he salivated with anticipation.

Kaden struggled against the pain in his arm, but it wouldn’t budge. He couldn't even raise his wrench to defend. 

Osiris raised his free arm high behind him, its blade prepared to sever Kaden's head from his shoulders with one stroke. 

The beleaguered Lombax still had the canister in his hand, but at this range, it would do as much damage to him as his enemy. 

Just before the blow came down, Kaden swung his feet up in an attempt to kick his assailant's face. Osiris laughed as Kaden's feet come up short of their target; instead, they simply fluttered futilely just in front of it. 

Kaden grinned inside his helmet and, with a mental command, ignited his hover boots.

The roar of jets was almost drowned out by the shriek of pain that came from Osiris's throat as the Agorian pulled back from the heat. Kaden grit his teeth tightly and had to fight back his own cry of pain as the sword blade was yanked from his shoulder.

Nearly blinded, Osiris swung his blades around wildly and when he finally regained his sight, he paused a moment in order to regain his bearings. 

Kaden used this opportunity to get in under the Agorian's guard. The young Lombax’s right arm was still healing and he couldn't use it to bring up his wrench, so instead, he leapt up and grabbed hold of one of Osiris’ armor chest straps with his good arm, pulling him up from the ground.

Osiris looked down in surprise to find the Lombax clinging to his chest like an infant. He was also surprised to realize that his swords were too long to be of any use in this situation. 

_ ‘It didn't matter though,’ _  the Agorian thought as he laughed inwardly. All he had to do was grab hold of his wounded prey and peel it off like a tic. 

Osiris reached over to do so, but paused. He just now noticed that the Lombax was no longer gripping the canister from earlier. His trained warrior ears picked up the sound of something round and metallic rolling on the ground behind him.

His legs bent to run, but the acid-filled grenade went off at that very moment. 

Green liquid splattered across the Agorian's back. More howls of pain echoed as the acid ate through armor and skin with equal ease. Kaden was completely untouched by the spray, having used Osiris as a living shield. 

With his plan completed the Lombax jumped down from his perch and put as much distance between him and his enemy as possible. He could still feel the tiny nanites reweaving the muscle tissue in his shoulder and it hurt a lot, to say the least.

With half his body covered in blisters and most of his face scorched, Osiris the Malevolent turned to face his enemy once again. His glare was piercing. It was no longer filled with the joyous rush of combat. Now it burned with hot rage that was chilled only by his cold determination. The singular thing on his mind now was the thought of dismembering the Lombax in front of him.

Kaden returned the glare as he calculated his chances of surviving another encounter. The simple fact was that Osiris was too fast and too strong for him to beat with only a wrench and a Combuster. He was out of grenades, tricks, and didn't stand a snowball's chance on Rykan V of charging up a Nuclear Fist shot before Osiris could put another skewering sword through him. 

No matter how many calculations he did, every time Kaden would come to the same conclusion and it wasn't a good one, but his time for calculation was up when Osiris began to charge again.

The Agorian ran full tilt, skewering swords pulled back and ready to strike, without breaking his hate-filled glare. Kaden switched his wrench to his left hand since his right wasn't back to full strength yet. He didn't think he could survive another onslaught, but it was looking like he didn't have a choice. 

That was when a miracle happened. 

An eardrum-shattering roar filled the arena as the massive War Grok got over its wound and its predatory animal instincts took control again, driving its aggression once more.

It didn't attack directly, though. Instead, it hunched down and pointed the volcano-shaped hump on its back towards Osiris and Kaden. Several squishy, popping noises echoed around the arena as the War Grok fired what looked like purple balls of flesh from its back.

As each blob hit the floor, however, they sprouted legs. Dozens of small, eyeless creatures scurried around with bulbous heads that had yellow pustules on them. 

As they surrounded Kaden and Osiris, their oversized heads deformed even more to squeeze out projectile balls of acidic saliva. 

Kaden dove to avoid the hissing spit, before swinging his wrench and firing his Combuster to clear the area of the parasites. They were more of a nuisance than a challenge, really. 

As they died, they dissolved and their nanites were harvested like all of his other enemies. It was a mild surprise to Kaden that the creatures had Nanotech in their bloodstream, but it made sense as he realized that they were symbiotic to the War Grok and the War Grok had probably eaten dozens of enemies in battle, which included their nanites.

Kaden dove again to avoid another acidic lugy, but ended up luckily dodging something that had been much worse.

A sharp zing reached Kaden's auditory sensors as a seven-foot-long skewering sword scraped the paint off of the top of his helmet. Had Kaden not been wearing his completely contained G-83 armor, he would most certainly have just lost an ear.

With an extra roll added to his dive for distance, Kaden came back up, facing his attacker and was greeted by the sight of a very enraged Agorian, covered with hissing green acid, and standing at the end of a long trail of the War Grok parasites’ shredded bodies.

Osiris didn't let Kaden regain his balance. The Agorian was stabbing and slashing so fast that Kaden could only block the onslaught, but the attacks were wild and poorly aimed. Still, Osiris pushed Kaden backwards without uttering a single word of insult or intimidation. He cared nothing for glory or honor or fame in that moment, he only wanted to kill.

Just as Osiris was gaining the upper hand, however, the War Grok saved Kaden again… kind of. 

From out of nowhere a massive grey palm swatted the tiny Lombax clear across the arena floor. In his dizzied state, Kaden was just able to activate his hoverboots to stop himself from heading over the arena’s edge and into the lava.

He landed on the floor in a heap, his wind knocked from his lungs, and his very bones aching from the impact.

With his prey stolen, Osiris instead turned his wrath on the bloodthirsty beast that had stolen it. With a bellow of anger, the Agorian warrior began carving long, bloody lines in the War Grok's arm and body. 

Every counter-attack the War Gork tried to make was easily avoided with such practiced ease that it was almost effortless even in Osiris’s diminished state of mind.

The War Grok was soon running out of steam from the effort of throwing around its gargantuan body and from the numerous wounds it was suffering. 

Seizing the moment, Osiris got in close for his famous finishing blow where he would bury one of his swords into the War Grok's heart.

The heart of a War Grok was especially large, even when the creature's size is taken into consideration. Add to that the muscle and thick hide between it, the only way for Osiris to guarantee an instant death with a single stab was to drive his seven-foot blade up to its hilt, to ensure the organ's failure. 

The War Grok King pulled back his arm to strike, with his blade aiming straight at the beast's chest. Then he punched forward, sending his sword forward like a loosed arrow, speeding to its target. 

But, just before the strike was made, an OmniWrench came flying in from out of nowhere. It struck his arm with a bone-cracking thwack and weakened his strike.

Osiris's sword penetrated the War Grok’s chest a second later, the pain of which caused the exhausted creature to rear up and roar with anger and suffering. But it was not dead. 

Osiris’s sword had only managed to go four feet deep, but it was deep enough that the surprised Agorian had been lifted up off the ground with its sword still stuck in the War Grok. 

Osiris blinked in confusion as he dangled from the War Grok's chest. When his senses came back to him, he immediately pulled back his other blade to strike again, but it was too late. 

The War Grok looked down at its attacker and enclosed Osiris's head within its colossal fist.

Muffled yells of surprised horror emanated from the War Grok's clenched fist as it lifted the trapped Agorian into the air, snapping off the sword in its chest with the force of its pulling. 

Osiris's arms flailed as he desperately tried to stab at the War Grok with his remaining sword. He managed to drive its tip a good foot into the War Grok's forearm, but the creature knew not to let go, despite the pain. Instead, it squeezed with everything it had until a wet, stomach-churning pop echoed around the now silent arena.

Rearing up as tall as it could, the War Grok threw Osiris's body into the stunned crowd, and then it threw something else at the crowd on the opposite side of the arena. The spectator unfortunate enough to be hit by the object fainted. 

With its foe defeated the War Grok roared triumphantly and beat its chest in a display of its might and, as Kaden knew, a challenge to him. 

This act, however, drove the rest of the skewering sword that was still stuck in its chest all the way through its heart. The War Grok grunted and its eye widened in surprise... before it toppled to the ground dead.

The crowd was too stunned to react. 

Even as the War Grok's body began to dissolve, not even the announcer had a thing to say. 

When nanites are left without a signal from a control module for a long time, like the ones that had been in the War Grok, they deactivate and go dormant in their host's body. 

In order to reactivate them, a very complex electromagnetic signal was necessary, before the usual hack command could make them vibrate out, as Kaden did for his other opponents. Now that the nanoscopic robots were no longer part of an active metabolism, they could be reactivated and controlled.

As a vast, blue mist began to form from the War Grok's carcass, Kaden felt a little nanite fever when he saw that it was going to be a huge haul.

At that moment, someone in the arena’s control booth, who had been watching the match with disbelief, had managed to break from their shocked state long enough to engage the next phase of the challenge. 

With the screech of the elevator lift, a large, three-headed Hydra tank rose up from the floor like a deadly flower blooming. 

All three of its mechanical heads reared up and roared as they were activated and energy flowed through them. They spun around on their drum-like base that was attached to a set of tank treads, scanning the area, before facing their designated target.

Kaden barely had time to think before orbs of burning plasma began raining down on him from the mouths of three heads. And even less time after that, when the Hydra tank began chasing after him. He zigzagged across the floor as he moved to get out of the line of fire. 

As he ran, one of the heads stopped its shower of blasts and instead blew a solid stream of fire across the arena floor. Kaden managed to stop himself from running into it, but the three-headed tank moved radially on its axis, combing the arena in fire towards him.

Before he could react, Kaden was bathed in plasma and he felt every inch of his armor heat up. The parts of skin and fur, where the armor's protection was thinnest and where previous rents in it were still missing, were cooked like a steak. 

There was no single, sharp pain like when he'd been stabbed or cut. It was everywhere on his body all at once.

Biting back the agony, Kaden planted his feet firmly where he stood and as the next salvo of plasma streams came at him, he activated his repulsor field. When the superheated gas splashed against his shield and moved on, he then activated his Nuclear Fist. 

After seeing its ranged attacks were no longer having an effect, the Hydra tank rolled forward in an attempt to crush him. 

Before it got more than five feet, however, Kaden's attack was ready. A moment later there was a familiar scream of ionizing air followed by a massive, arena-rattling explosion and a blinding flash of light.

When Kaden could see again, the Hydra tank was still intact, but it was heavily damaged. The tan Lombax smiled wide and laughed inside his own helmet. After everything he'd been through, ‘this’, at least, would be easy. 

Unfortunately, his good feelings didn't last. All three mechanical heads folded back up into the tank’s center, even with sparks falling from extensively damaged components. Moments later, a powerful force field raised itself over the three heads like an umbrella and a ring of fire belched from the tank's undercarriage.

Kaden jumped to avoid the ring easily, but he knew that the shield was likely impenetrable, even with his nuclear blasts. A moment later, his heart sank as he watched the damaged Hydra tank repair itself under the shield with Microtech.

Microtech was the cheaper, older version of Nanotech. It was a method of using repair bots over a hundred times larger than nanites, but still too small to see with the naked eye to quickly repair simple, large machinery like the Hydra tank. They were infinitely reusable since they were designed to re-assimilate damaged material and reconstruct it. 

Microtech's downside was that they couldn't work on sensitive material like organic creatures or advanced circuitry. They were also susceptible to heat, concussion, and hacking. Once the shield was lowered the Micro-bots would have to be stored inside the tank's drum to protect them.

As concern was starting to creep back into Kaden's mind, he spotted three versa-fuses sticking out from under the neck of each Hydra head. 

His heart leapt at the good fortune. If he could just yank those fuses out, he could sever the heads' connections and destroy the tank. He immediately took a step toward them, but stopped himself about halfway.

_ ‘It’s too obvious,’   _ he thought suspiciously. 

Not even Agorians were dumb enough to expose their heavy siege weapons' one weakness during its most vulnerable and approachable time. The only answer Kaden could think of was that the fuses were a trap. 

He felt his suspicions confirmed as another wave of fire blasted out from the tank. He was sure that the versa-fuses probably weren't even real.

This left Kaden pleased with himself about figuring out the Agorian's ruse, but also with no way of killing the giant tank. As he thought hard about the problem and dodged more blasts of plasma, the Hydra tank finished its repairs. 

Kaden immediately put his shield up to protect himself while also charging another Nuclear Fist. The Hydra tank mercilessly poured fire on his hunched form, but the heat did not get past his repulsor field. 

When there was a lull in the onslaught, Kaden wasted no time in bringing his glowing hand back around and blasting his enemy once more.

As if on repeat, Kaden watched the snake-headed tank coil up again and then found himself once more in the same situation. It only took him a few seconds to calculate that, at the current rate, he'd run out of power cells before he put a single permanent dent in the tank's hull.

It was then, when all hope was beginning to seem lost, that a glint of light from the arena floor caught Kaden’s eye. He turned his head to see what it was and suddenly... he had the solution. 

Just as the Hydra tank finished its repair, Kaden tore off at full speed toward the object he’d spotted. A barrage of plasma was sent after him seconds later, the superheated gas burned streaks in the arena floor as they came so close that Kaden had to thank his G-83 suit for protecting his tail. 

Kaden reached his target, and turned to throw up his shield, just in time to stop the firewall attack from washing over him completely. A few seconds later, he had another Nuclear Fist charged and ready and he wasted no time in using it. 

However, as the Hydra tank folded up under its energy barrier for a third time, Kaden reached down and picked up the remains of Osiris the Malevolent's shattered sword which had been recently freed from the dissolved War Grok.

Kaden drove the sword, point-first, into the ground as deeply as he could, which wasn’t that much really. Some spectators laughed at his apparent lack of strength.

Without much time to complete preparations, Kaden placed one hand on top of the vertical blade and with his other, he formed a circle with his thumb and forefinger around the metal stick just above the floor, but not quite touching the weapon.

With a mental command, he activated the magnets in his gauntlets. The gauntlet that touched the sword on top sent its magnetic field throughout the whole sword, super-magnetizing it. 

Soon, metallic dust, from all of the previous battles, began attracting to it. Kaden continued to raise the power of his mag-fields until a huge black cloud of vaporized gladiator weaponry and robots was being sucked toward the sword like a vacuum. 

As the blade began accumulating more dust, Kaden activated his other gauntlet. Down at the sword’s buried tip, his second gauntlet began to pulse with a repellent magnetic force. The pulsing action allowed him to store up energy in his suit’s capacitors and deliver it in one sudden burst. This burst crushed metallic powder on the sword with so much force, that the material fused together and became a solid piece of metal.

Slowly, the desperate Lombax moved his second hand up toward the top of the sword, compressing and solidifying the dust as he did so. Also, since dust was still being attracted to the weapon, there was more the further up the weapon he went, forming a natural cone around the sword.

When it was done, Kaden stood over the metal coated sword that was still stuck in the ground and stretched out his arms lengthwise, so that they were parallel with the weapon. He then yanked it out of the ground with just his magnetic field generator. It floated gently in the air, completely covered in solidified metal dust, except for the glinting sword tip. 

Kaden had cannibalized the concept of his Metal Storm prototype to build his Nuclear Fists. Now it seemed ironic that he had used the new design to manipulate metal on the battlefield anyway.

In the center of the arena, the Hydra tank had finished its repairs and its snake-like heads roared awake again. All three heads turned to face Kaden before biting into the ground. The tank's tracks began to spin and pieces of the arena floor were thrown up as the three heads held their position until the tank could build up enough speed. 

Kaden aimed his super-dense projectile towards the metal behemoth and the two titans of the Battleplex faced each other one last time.

With a scream of strained metal, the Hydra Tank heads released their hold, sending the tank speeding forward at a blistering rate. 

Kaden didn't flinch though. Rather than move to avoid it, however, Kaden did the exact opposite and mentally activated the mag-locks on his boots and locked himself to the floor.

As his magnets continued to charge. The hum grew to a point where it could be heard even over the sound the Hydra tank and then, finally, Kaden stuck out his thumbs and touched them to the sword. 

The moment that the polarized magnets of his armor made contact with the metal spear between, his arms became the twin rails of a rail gun. 

With barely a hiss of displaced air, the makeshift munition between his arms flashed out across the arena at a speed too fast the see. It sliced the atmosphere like a laser scalpel through frozen nitrogen and let out an echoing boom from the sheer speed with which it pushed aside the air.

In an instant, the middle head of the tank was split clean in half, its sides peeling apart like a banana, before the projectile proceeded down into the tank's metallic body. The shot had decimated every component in its line of trajectory before exiting out the other side and burying itself under the arena floor. Tiny dribbles of lava peeked up from the hole it left behind.

Despite the damage, the Hydra Tank continued to roll forward, but Kaden easily sidestepped from its path before the smoking tank body slowed to a halt just shy of the arena edge, saving it from the lava pit. 

A second later it detonated in an eruption of metal and fire that showered the whole arena, spectators included, with flaming scrap.

There were no cheers like there usually was and the announcer said nothing, the crowd was simply too stunned to make a noise. The War Grok King had just been killed by a War Grok and a Lombax now stood victorious over their greatest Battleplex challenge yet. The silence was deafening.

"Yeah, Kaden!" bellowed a white-furred Lombax from the front row.

As if a switch had been hit, every spectator in the arena burst out in raucous applause and cheered at the top of their lungs. There was clapping and stomping and celebratory throwing of the smallest crowd members. Soon a chant began, hailing: "Kaden! Kaden! Kaden!".

Kaden almost fell over unconscious right then and there from the wave of relief that washed over him. He watched with indescribable satisfaction as a rolling storm of blue mist drifted over the arena floor and was sucked straight into his collection canister, almost filling it to capacity. It was true that some of it was Microtech, but he'd find a use for it anyway.

Oh, and he was relieved to have survived… that was a plus.

Over the sound of the crowd, the announcer came on, "Wow, what a spectacle. I can honestly say that I've ‘never’ seen anything like it in all my days as a Battleplex announcer." The cheers redoubled at the declaration, but there was something wrong with announcer's tone. "Yes, yes, it was quite a show. Unfortunately... it has been brought to the attention of the Agorian Council that Kaden the Better Gamer… does not meet the Battleplex’s minimum height requirement of at least six feet. I am thus forced to announce that he is to be disqualified and therefore... the winner of the Gold Cup is the late Osiris the Malevolent."

The cheers of the arena immediately shifted to boos while the celebratory throwing of small spectators became disgruntled throwing of small spectators. Riots and fighting began breaking out all over the arena before Kaden was teleported away… with a huge grin on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Percy the Dazzling and Osiris the Malevolent - are real canon characters from A Crack in Time. Their statues are on display in the combatant’s Lounge that you can get to in the game. In the previous chapter, Alister made note of the two empty statue alcoves where they would eventually go. I made their deaths identical to their inscriptions on their statues.
> 
> Incongruous - To save you the trouble of having to look up this word like I had to, its definition is ‘Not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something.’
> 
> Throwporters - It might be worth mentioning that once Kaden, or any challenger, steps onto the teleporter pad, they are loaded into the teleporter, but kept in limbo until the match is prepared. But, to the challenger (and the reader/player), it feels as if no time has passed.
> 
> Gold Cup - I tried to make the five challenges of the gold cup identical to the ones played in the game. This was more of a nod to it rather than making complete sense, since many, many canonical years would have passed between these instances. However, the real problem was that I couldn’t put a weapon switching challenge in, as that would just be weird.


	8. Return

Alister zoomed down the halls of the Battleplex on twin rocket trails. Everywhere he went was chaos. The entire Battleplex was going nuts and not just the Agorians either. Terachnoids were all over the place, yelling things like "How could my calculations be wrong?" and "I lost everything on that match!"

The Agorians were rioting, though it was hard to tell which ones were doing it in anger or excitement. They yelled things like "The Lombax must have cheated," and "No hoverbooting in the halls!" 

Clearly, they had lost their minds and were not to be listened to.

It was taking Alister longer to return to the teleporter room than it had before, as he was forced to go around the raucous patrons of the Battleplex. When he finally did make it to the entrance, he could hear the noise of rioting from beyond the teleporter room doors before they had even been opened.

As the metal gate parted before him, the white-furred Lombax found the room crowded with Agorians. The glass walls on either side had been shattered and the seats mostly vacated, their occupants now dancing or brawling on the central floor.

Despite the chaos, however, Alister didn't have to search for Kaden, his tan-furred friend was at the center of the crowd, being held up like a rock star while the Agorians that held him cheered and shouted praise.

Not all the Agorians were happy though. The ones on the outside of the group, between the doors and Kaden, had formed a line to block his exit.

"We should skin him alive for the cowardly way he killed The King!" yelled one Agorian.

"You are the coward!" another retaliated. "You shame all Agorian kind by denying him the honor earned in the Battleplex."

"The Lombax has no honor. He was disqualified from the tournament," shouted a third.

"Who's ever heard of a height requirement?" demanded a particularly large Agorian in response. "Those weaklings in the council merely refuse to acknowledge that a non-Agorian has won the gold tournament. If I were on the council, I'd ensure that such a disgrace never happens again."

As the Agorians argued and shoved each other, Alister climbed up the back of the nearest one and ran over the heads of others towards where Kaden was. A few of the crowd took swipes at him, but he was too fast and soon made it to his destination. 

His friend looked like a mess. The surface of Kaden’s armor had more burns, rents, and patchy repairs on it than it had undamaged areas. As for the Lombax himself... he couldn't have looked happier.

Kaden sat up comfortably on the wave of hands as if he were a king on a throne. His expression arrogantly announced that he completely believed that he deserved the acclaim that he was now receiving. 

Personally, Alister knew that Kaden's feat of skill and power in the arena probably warranted even more than this, something like a large golden trophy maybe, but by this point in time Alister's reaction to this exact look on Kaden's face was now second nature.

"You are aware that you didn't actually win aren't you?" Alister shouted over the noise of the Agorians in an attempt to bring down his friend's ego.

Kaden simply smirked at the comment, "Oh, I won," he said confidently. "I may not have a trophy, but I have what I came for," he added with a thumb to the tank over his back.

Alister simply shook his head, "We need to get out of here," he continued with a more serious tone.

Kaden nodded his agreement. He didn't really want to leave, but with half the Agorian crowd still trying to kill him and his armor and weapons in need of a serious recharge and repair, he knew it was time to go. 

With thoughts in tune, both Lombaxes raised their Swingshots to the ceiling above the entrance and fired.

The moment Kaden and Alister hit the floor, the Agorians who wanted Kaden dead turned to attack. The moment those Agorians turned their attention away from Kaden's new fans, they were jumped. 

The two factions of Agorians quickly became a writhing pile of fists and head-butts. Kaden turned to admire the impressive melee and felt pride that it was technically in his honor, before Alister grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along.

* * *

Alister piloted the trillium harvester back into its docking area on Kreeli. Kaden had already hacked the depot's equipment inventory so that no one would notice it was gone. In a short while, the digital inventory would be updated by the same sleeper program to show the harvester back where it belonged, now that they’d returned.

"We're here," said Alister with clear relief evident in his tone.

But, when he received no response, the white-furred Lombax turned to find that his friend was fast asleep. Alister nodded his head in understanding. He'd be exhausted too after a fight like that. 

It almost made him feel bad about what he was about to do, but rules were rules, "Nose, ears, or mouth?" he asked the sleeping Lombax quietly.

Kaden didn't awaken, but instead, he leaned his head back and opened his mouth wide in rhythm with a loud snore. Alister grinned as he got his answer. He looked around the harvester cab for anything that would make a great photo-op. The best thing he could find that wouldn't kill someone was a leftover sandwich. 

Alister shrugged and thought, ' _ It will have to do,'  _ before raising the object high over his friend's open mouth. 

He then activated his NID's eye capture device and was lining up the perfect angle for the shot when he spotted the shadow of a Lombax watching them from the dock's control center behind Kaden.

Alister’s heart stopped as his grip on the sandwich released. Kaden was stirred from his slumber by the impact of the sandwich, but was brought fully awake when he was tackled onto the floor of the cab.

"What's going on?!" he demanded as consciousness returned to him in fits and starts.

Alister quickly covered Kaden's mouth, "Shhhhh! Someone saw us!" he hissed in Kaden's ear.

"What? Who?" Kaden asked, fully awake now.

"I don't know," Alister answered with panic creeping into his voice. "Kaden, I can't get caught stealing my dad's equipment. He'll kill me and hang my tail up as a warning to everyone else!"

"Ok, ok. Just calm down," Kaden soothed. "With any luck, they didn't get a good look at our faces. What were you doing when you saw them?"

"I was about to shove a sandwich in your mouth and take a holo-pic of it," Alister answered without any thought for what he just said.

Kaden paused a moment before continuing, "We have to get out of here. We'll fly the harvester back out of the hanger and stash it somewhere safe. We can sneak back in on foot and when security thinks the thieves got away in the harvester, I'll hack the inventory again and return it."

"Ok," whispered Alister sounding a little calmer. 

Just as they were about to enact their plan however, the harvester shook with the force of an impact from the outside. 

"What was that?" Alister demanded as the fear returned to him.

Kaden knew right away that it was likely a cargo crane being dropped right on top of the harvester. They weren't going anywhere now. 

There was an attention-grabbing tone as the equipment dock speakers powered on, "Kaden, I know you're in there," echoed a familiar voice. "You’re the only one brazen enough to steal my I.D. and take a trillium harvester for a joyride. Come meet me at the dock entrance. If you run, your punishment will only get worse." The tone cut out and Kaden sighed sadly. He was about to get up when the speaker tone restarted and the voice returned, "And on the off chance that you get away, I'll punish my son, just to be sure. He's probably done something to deserve it anyway."

"Oh man!" said Alister on the verge of freaking out.

"Calm down," Kaden commanded. "He only said my name, so he probably doesn't know you're here. I guess I’ll just have to take the fall for this one, it was my idea after all." 

Alister didn't say anything, he simply nodded in acknowledgement. 

Kaden eyed him for a moment, as if he’d expected some form of protest, but sighed when he realized none were coming, "I'm going to slip out of my armor so my dad doesn't know where we went. When the coast is clear, grab the gear and get out before anyone else comes around, ok?" 

Again Alister simply nodded. Kaden knew that his friend was feeling guilty about letting him take the full blame, but he also knew that getting caught meant much more to Alister than to him.

It only took Kaden a few minutes to strip off all of his armor, since he'd already removed most of the damaged pieces, which was most of it. Now freed of combat equipment, the tan Lombax stood up and moved to the exit. 

He stopped just before opening the door and turned back to Alister, "Hey, I'm sorry about making you do this with me," he apologized solemnly.

Alister calmed down and laughed lightly, "Don't worry about it. It was a great show," The two friends grinned and clasped forearms, before Kaden opened the door to face his fate.

* * *

Kaden's father stood waiting for his son, silhouetted in the entrance to the docking bay. He remained there calmly, with his arms folded, until his son was within arm's reach before speaking.

"I can't really say that I'm surprised Kaden," Cerdas began as he looked down at his son. "I know you're at 'that' age, and that I’m not always very strict with you, but this… this is too much."

Kaden lowered his head dejectedly, "I'm sorry I took the harvester,” he apologized “I just wanted to go for a ride around the comet on my own," he lied blatantly.

Cerdas shook his head in disappointment and sighed, "You know that's not what I'm upset about," he said sadly.

"I don't kno-," but before Kaden could finish his sentence, his father reached out with the speed of striking snake and gripped his right shoulder tightly. Kaden winced as pain shot across his nerves again.

"Nanotech has a nasty habit of putting the nerves back together wrong," Kaden's father explained with a stern look. "The body parts it repairs tend to be very sensitive, once the painkillers fade. The sorer the limb the worse the injury and that looks like it hurts pretty bad."

Kaden pulled his arm back from his father and rubbed the shoulder gingerly, "How'd you know?" he asked.

"I always knew about the Battleplex," Cerdas answered. "We figured that Agorians going after Trillium had to be for a reason, albeit a stupid one. I didn't tell you because I was afraid that something like this would happen, but I was sure of where you went when my I.D. badge was gone."

Kaden looked surprised, "You mean you actually went to work after Suavis fruit pie day?"

"Of course I did," his father replied, slightly offended. "Your mother would tan my pelt if I did that again."

Kaden continued to look surprised, "You mean you actually held yourself back on Suavis fruit pie day because mom told you to?"

"Ha!" exclaimed Cerdas. "Who do you think you're talking too? Of course I didn't. 'More pie or die' is my motto. No, I got the ‘mad doc’ to make me an experimental digestive medication, worked like a charm." Kaden nodded his appreciation of his father's plan. "Anyway, Kaden, you know I can't let you get away with this. Even if you are 'that age', I need you to understand how serious this is."

"You don’t think that a crazy horde of Agorians trying to kill me and the massive body trauma is enough?" Kaden asked.

Cerdas shook his head, "A skewering sword is probably the only thing that could get through that thick skull of yours and since I don't see any signs of a lobotomy, I think something a little different is necessary. For the next month, you're grounded."

Kaden was confused, "Grounded? How is that supposed to teach me a lesson?" he asked. 

He knew it was a stupid thing to say, since it would likely make his punishment worse, but the discipline sounded so weak that he couldn't help himself.

His father grinned, "By grounded I mean you're stuck on the ground, as in: ‘no hoverboots’."

Now it was starting to sound bad to Kaden, "But then I can't go on scouting missions. What am I supposed to do for the Security Department now?" he questioned. His first thought was flying fighter ships on patrol missions, but he doubted that was going to happen.

His father's grin then turned slightly wicked, "Who says you can't go on scouting missions?"

"What do you expect me to do? Walk on my patrols?" asked Kaden in disbelief.

"No, I expect you to run," Cerdas said with a malicious glint in his eye. "I'll have to make some provisions with Bob about keeping your scouting locations close together and your return times long, but you can't expect to accomplish half the work of everyone else and still get a good report at Nova, now can you?"

Kaden was stunned. The punishment sounded horrible, but he now had his own card to play, "If you make me do this, I'll tell mom you used dangerous, untested chemicals in order to gorge yourself on pie, which she told you to stop doing."

Now Cerdas was the one who looked surprised, "That medication was made by a highly trained, though possibly evil, medical professional and, even though your mother told me not to eat too much pie, she only did so because of how it affected my work, so it shouldn't be a problem since I went to work," he countered.

Now Kaden grinned wickedly, "You really think mom's going to see it that way?"

Cerdas narrowed his eyes at his son darkly, but after a moment, his grin returned, "If you tell your mother, I'll tell ‘Sorana’ that you not only stole from the company that hired you, but that you nearly got yourself killed by a bloodthirsty horde of Agorians... and that you ended up killing who knows how many of them."

Now Kaden was back to being on the defensive, "But-but I returned the equipment, in one piece this time. And they're just Agorians! They're hatched from eggs by the dozens and are fully grown in two to four years. The Agorians themselves are probably less upset about Agorians getting killed in battle than anyone else."

Cerdas folded his arms and looked down at his son, "Do you really think Sorana's going to see it that way?"

Kaden looked down in defeat and his father laughed, but then stopped. Slowly the two Lombaxes turned their heads back to the other and their eyes met. They held each other's gaze for a long moment as they saw a common connection between them, one that was laced with incessant nagging. 

The two then suddenly embraced each other tightly. They hugged not only as a father and son, but as two Lombaxes who understood one another's pain.

"I love you, son," Cerdas said warmly.

"I love you too, dad," replied Kaden softly.

After a few seconds longer, they separated, both smiling brightly. 

Cerdas beamed down at his son, "I'll tell you what Kaden, we’ll shave your time down to a week and if you accept your punishment without complaint or trying to cheat it, then nobody else has to know about this besides you, me, and Alister." 

Kaden wasn't surprised when he heard Alister's name mentioned, he just continued smiling as he nodded his agreement, “Deal.”

Cerdas put his arm around his son's shoulders and the two of them started walking down the hallway together, "Come on, let's get you to the infirmary, I'm sure that shoulder isn't the only thing on you that needs some medical attention.”

Kaden shrugged, but nodded his agreement all the same.

“You know, son," Cerdas began after a short distance, "I do have to say that I'm pretty impressed by how dedicated you were to getting away with this. You even dyed your fur blue to try and hide your identity."

Kaden stopped walking and looked up at his father in confusion, making Cerdas stop as well, "Dad, I didn't dye my fur blue," Kaden said with concern is his voice.

Cerdas eyed his son with an equally confused face, then he raised his own arm up to his eyes and examined his fur for a long time before mumbling, “Side effects,” Then he calmly turned back to Kaden, "Well son, it looks like we both have a reason to go to the infirmary now," he said with a smile. Then he turned his head and added under his breath, "Darn you, pie."

* * *

Sorana landed face-first onto her bed with a muffled thud, "How many fancy dinners and parties can one family go to in a week?" she complained through her blanket as her robotic maid cleaned up her discarded garments.

"You know your parents are just excited to show off their new Nova Academy daughter to all their friends and business associates," answered Cam. "It's all they've been talking about since you left."

Knowing what was in store for her, Sorana had tried to remain at Nova for the beginning her break period, wanting instead to focus on her schoolwork, but eventually her parents' insisting finally got her to return home. Now she'd spent almost every day since revisiting every member of her family, the friends of the family, the friends of friends of the family, and anyone else her father could find to brag to.

Sorana raised her head to look unhappily at her robotic servant, "I know they are Cam, but why are they so obsessive? If this keeps up, I'll have to miss the first few days of the new semester."

Cam tossed the gathered clothing and shoes into a bin and began the task of choosing a set of sleepwear for the night, "Don't worry young miss, I'm sure your supervisors will give you some extra time off if you ask. Your description of your Art Field instructors paints them as a bit wishy-washy."

Sorana frowned slightly before rolling over on her bed and sitting up, "That's the problem," she grumbled. "I wouldn't have to worry about it if I thought any of my instructors would lower my scores for missing class. Then mom and dad would have no choice but to let me go back." 

In truth, Sorana had partially chosen to stay at Nova during her break period because she thought Kaden would be staying as well, and, by the sounds of it, he did too. 

She had hoped that with classes slowing down she'd finally have more time to spend with her childhood friend. She also knew that if she were to return after the start of the semester, Kaden was likely to have become engrossed in another project of some kind.

"I know that face," Cam interjected suddenly. "That's your 'I miss the crazy, uncouth, demon child face'."

"What?" replied Sorana, caught off guard. "How can you tell that just from a look?"

Cam raised her head proudly, "I have a new expression processor and I've been updating it with old holo-recordings of you," she explained. "Your lips are curled slightly more down than your usual 'I miss someone face' and your eyes are slightly more narrow than your 'I'd like some pudding face'."

Sorana stared blankly for a moment before changing the subject, "You can't really still be mad at Kaden can you?" she asked curiously.

Cam folded her arms and gave Sorana a stern look, "Being reprogrammed to do the chicken dance and shout 'Pickles' whenever someone says my name is not something that I can forgive, miss. The very accessing of that memory file triggers my embarrassment emulator to its maximum level."

"Oh, he was just trying to cheer me up when I was sick," Sorana defended. After a moment, though, she had to fight back laughter as she recalled the event from when she was a kid. "You should just let him erase the memory of it anyway. It'd be like it never happened."

"Hmph, that little miscreant is never getting near my circuits again," the robotic maid declared angrily.

Still smiling, Sorana turned her head to her side and said under her breath, "You didn't mind the last time he did it."

Cam's robotic eyes turned blue, an indication of sadness or worry, "You mean he's done it before?" she cried.

"No, no! It was just a joke Cam," said Sorana quickly, seeing the panic in her servant’s metallic face.

Cam looked like she was about to say something else, but Sorana suddenly felt an artificial tingling in the back of her head from her NID. This meant that she was receiving a transmission. 

Sorana breathed a sigh of relief as the nearest holo-monitor rang a moment later and silenced any further conversation. She then walked over to it and opened the incoming transmission notification.

"Oh!" exclaimed Cam the moment she saw the identification portrait of the caller. Her eyes shifted from blue to orange and her hands exploded into various grooming devices. "At least this suitor's attractive."

Sorana's eyes widened when she saw what Cam was about to do, "No, Cam, i-it's not like… hey, that hurts when you... don't… I just got all that stuff off..."

* * *

"Hello, President Adjunaris," Sorana said pleasantly to the image of the white-furred Lombax on the holo-monitor. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Miss Bellit, I've told you before, please call me Varick," replied the figure. "These aren't formal calls after all." 

Sorana leaned back in her chair, "No?" she asked with her still stinging eyebrows raised. "Then why is it that every time you call it feels like a business meeting?"

Varick shrugged and smiled back disarmingly, "For me, my business is my pleasure."

"A pleasure for you maybe," Sorana replied with her own disarming smile, "but not for everyone."

"Do you dislike our conversations that much?" said Varick with hurt purposely evident in his voice.

Sorana shook her head, "I was talking about Kaden, actually. Though, I don’t like helping you manipulate him either," Sorana explained coldly. 

Varick's smile returned, "You know very well that my only goal is to ensure Kaden reaches his utmost potential as a Nova Student. This is a goal I believed we both shared, correct?"

"Hmmmm," intoned Sorana suspiciously.

"Besides," Varick continued unhindered, "isn't our deal mutually beneficial? All the chef bots in the Science Field sneak healthy alternatives into anything Kaden eats ‘and’ you get detailed reports of his grades and daily activities at Nova." 

Sorana didn't respond immediately, she simply tapped her fingers for a few seconds as she chose her words, "Not to complain, but don't you think the amount of information you give me on Kaden is a bit too..."

"Detailed, quality... impressive?" suggested Varick with self-satisfaction.

"Detailed... yes, but I was going to say something more like intrusive or creepy," Sorana countered. 

Varick laughed good-naturedly, "I am the President of the Science Field," he explained. "I don't hold this position because I do things halfway." 

Sorana nodded once in acknowledgement, "As much as I appreciate your attention to detail, I think that even the most overbearing parents on Fastoon would think that this was too much like stalking," she insisted.

Varick's expression suddenly soured and his eyes looked somewhere off screen, "Not the ‘most’ overbearing parents, no," he said bitterly. Sorana was taken aback by the sudden new demeanor of the perpetually cheerful Lombax. Varick appeared to have also just noticed Sorana's expression, "Ehem… excuse me," he said as he cleared his throat. "Where were we? Ah yes… maybe it would be too much for 'some' parents, but we're talking about a love much deeper than simply that of a parent, aren't we?" 

Varick's words immediately erased Sorana's curiosity. She growled in annoyance, "I should really introduce you to my roommate. You two have a common bad habit of making inferences about other people's lives," she said. 

Varick picked up a digi-pad and nodded sagely as he read it, "Yes, Clarissa Eros, an aspiring novelist with a specialty for romances."

Sorana shook her head in bewilderment, "And it's that kind of thing that I dislike most of all," she said angrily. 

Varick entered a few things on the digi-pad and nodded sagely again, "Yes, I see here where it says that on your file." Varick looked up from the pad with a big grin on his face. Sorana simply stared back at him. Varick then leaned forward on the monitor, "That was a joke," he explained.

"Ha... ha," Sorana laughed sarcastically. "Now what is your real reason for calling, Varick?"

Varick's attitude quickly changed to a formal one. "The academy break period is almost over and you're to return to the academy soon, correct?"

"I was planning on coming back soon, but my parents might make me stay longer," Sorana responded.

"That was a rhetorical question my dear, of course, I already know," Varick said with a grin.

"The joke isn't funnier the second time you know," Sorana noted disapprovingly.

"It wasn't a joke the second time," Varick said with complete seriousness. He then continued before Sorana could reply, "There's been a new development at Nova recently and I'd like you to be the one to tell Kaden about it."

"And what would that be?" asked Sorana with annoyance in her tone, but with a piqued interest.

"It seems that there's going to be a slight problem with Kaden's current source of motivation," Varick explained. "As of the start of the new semester, Kor Vol'terran will be promoted to level three in the Military Field."

"Level three?" repeated Sorana in surprise. "I was told that going up two levels in your first year at Nova only happens once in a decade."

"Actually the ratio is more like every three decades, but Nova rounds down to try and encourage students more,” Verick noted offhandedly. “Either way, Kor has definitely proven himself worthy of the rank. His prowess in Capture the Depot alone has embarrassed all of his upperclassmen."

"Capture the Depot?" Sorana asked when she heard the unfamiliar name.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Varick apologized before explaining, "Capture the Depot is a combat sport that the Military Field hosts. Teams of five students battle against both each other and an army of Nova Academy combat-bots. They do this while attempting to capture three nodes placed throughout the facility. The first team to capture two nodes or eliminate all of the opposing team members, wins."

"I see," said Sorana.

"Anyhow," Varick continued, "besides Kor's impressive record as an add-on player for the sport, the officials in charge at Nova also feared a repeat of last semester's opening tournament. His wrench may only be classified as class three lethal, but the truth is he nearly killed several students with just a single swing. The reason this announcement is coming so early is so that the hype of him participating again couldn't get the chance build up."

"Kaden won't be happy about that," Sorana said thoughtfully. "If he doesn't get a chance to settle things soon, he might even challenge Kor directly."

"Yes, of that I have no doubt," agreed Varick. "Luckily, I have a plan. Sometime after your return to Nova, Kaden will invite you to a lab that only Science Field students have access to. It’s supposed to be a surprise, I think, so do try to react accordingly. While you're there, I want you to mention what I've told you about Kor to Kaden in front of his instructor. She's likely to be there when you visit and I think she can be of some help to Kaden if she knows of his intentions. Also, please try not to mention my name. You know how Kaden gets if he thinks he's being manipulated."

"And for good reason," scoffed Sorana as she folded her arms. "I told you that I don't like this shady way of motivating Kaden."

"That's a good one coming from a politician's daughter," Varick muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Sorana demanded.

Varick simply shrugged, "It is up to you if you want to tell him or not. I'm trying to keep my hands as far from this situation as possible for various reasons, but if you don't want to, then I’ll just find another way, though I'm sure you'd rather be the one holding the reins. Am I right?"

Sorana shook her head, "How do you know he'll even invite me? I don't even know when I'll get back to Nova. He'll probably to get involved in some kind of project and will probably be too busy to even see me."

Varick simply smiled at her with his usual expression that said he knew something that no one else did, "Contrary to what people might think Sorana, truly brilliant Lombaxes often behave the most predictably. You can always be assured that they will take the path that will most likely lead to their best possible outcome. Now, can I count on you for this?"

Sorana carefully thought about everything Varick had said so far until finally, she nodded her agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suavis fruit - Yet another import from Markazia that’s been adopted eagerly by the Lombax people, Suavis fruit is an extremely sweet type of plant that grows in very hostile poison fields, making them rare and highly coveted. The word ‘suavis’ means ‘delicious’ in Latin. (I a note for Suavis fruit in twice, but I like them both).


End file.
